Archive for the ‘Female Genetics’ Category

In 1995, an ordinary-looking lamb was born to a conventional Merino ewe.

But Larry the lamb was anything but ordinary. Larry made history as the world's first gender-selected sheep.

Scientists at the University of Sydney always knew they'd be getting a baby boy. They'd employed a process that sorted ram semen into male and female, and they chose to produce a male.

The scientists used a technique discovered in the USA in 1989 when Dr Larry Johnson developed a method to separate living female-producing (X-chromosome) and male-producing (Y-chromosome) sperm based on their DNA content.

Johnson had effectively turned nature on its head. Until then, it had been nature that determined whether you were born male or female.

The American scientists made their breakthrough using rabbits and then successfully applied the technology to cows and pigs.

Naturally, it was livestock industries that stood to be the biggest beneficiaries of this brave new worldand it was dairy farmers who most embraced it.

They want female calves to replenish their milking herds.

Male calves, largely unwanted, are known as bobby calves and can be sold for slaughter as young as five days of age.

Dairy Australia estimates that last year nationwide, about 300,000 bobby calves met that fate.

Worldwide, there's growing opposition to bobby calves. Many countries have banned the trade.

New Zealand is introducing tighter restrictionsand many believe Australia will soon follow.

Improving animal welfare is a major reason why more Australian dairy farmers are using "sexed"semen.

"The main sort of incentive to use the sexed semen was the plight of the poor male Jersey bobby calf. They don't really have any value in our industry," said Tess Butler, a veterinarian and dairy farmer at Jindivick east of Melbourne.

"Unfortunately, they get slaughtered at about five days old, off to the abattoirs, which is something that we don't really agree withand we really want to change."

Just now, it's calving season. In the farm's calf-rearing shed, there's a growing number of young Jersey calves.

So far, their use of sexed semen is achieving better than expected results.

"Last year, we ran at about 10 per cent bulls, which is what we were kind of promised, which is great," said Ms Butler.

"This year, we've only been calving for a week, but we've got about 5 per cent bull calves, so that's amazing as well."

"The technology has definitely got better over time," said dairy farmer Rowen Foote.

"We're seeing a lot better conception rates from the start of 2004 up to now. It has been massive."

Mr Foote runs a large, family-owned dairy farm at Fish Creek in South Gippsland. Opposed to bobby calves, he was an early adopter of the use of sexed semen.

Gender selection also means he can sell surplus dairy heifers to the lucrative export market.

About a quarter of Australian dairy farmers are now using sexed semen. In the United Kingdom, the figure is now 50 per cent.

"So this whole area of sexed semen is evolving at a great rate, and primarily its been so much research and the success of conception rates that is driving that engagement," said Paul Douglas of global company ST Genetics.

British dairy farmers got access to sexed semen in 1998 when UK company Cogent made the first commercial sales of sexed semen from dairy bulls.

In the early years, it was expensive to use, the conception rates weren't always goodand there was a limited range of available bovine genetics.

In 2017, US based-company ST Genetics bought a majority share in Cogent.

The company is rapidly expanding its semen sorting facilities around the globe.

"I think there's 40 plus labs in 33 countries now, most of them working 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Peter Semmens, who heads up the company's Australian branch.

"The product is getting better every day, and the discerning breeder out there or the discerning farmer is making some pretty astute decisions," said Brad Aitken, whose company supplies genetics to livestock farmers across Australia.

To date, ST Genetics has focused on dairy genetics. But the company is targeting Australia's beef industry, which is rebuilding after severe droughts and floods.

Breeding more females through gender selection can accelerate that rebound.

The company has other species in its sights. Sheep producers are embracing the use of sexed semen, and pork and goat producers are poised to join them.

In the future, gender selection could be used to bolster populations of endangered animals by producing more breeding females.

And this new frontier of animal production is getting closer to home. The company is experimenting with sorting dog semen.

"It could be some ideal working dogs that become involved in a sexed semen situation. Who knows?" said Mr Douglas.

Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday, or onABC iview.

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The on-farm sexual revolution is getting closer to home - ABC News

One gene and pathogenic missense variants in that gene account for most cases of uncombable hair syndrome (UHS), a rare hair shaft anomaly that manifests during infancy, investigators have reported.

The findings are from a cohort study published in JAMA Dermatology that involved 107 unrelated children and adults suspected of having UHS, as well as family members, all of whom were recruited from January 2013 to December 2021. Genetic analyses were conducted in Germany from January 2014 to December 2021 with exome sequencing.

Senior author Regina C. Betz, MD, professor of dermatogenetics at the Institute of Human Genetics, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany, told Medscape that in 2016, she and her co-investigators authored a study on the molecular genetics of UHS. That study, which involved 18 people with UHS, identified variants in three genes PADI3, TCHH, and TGM3 that encode proteins that play a role in the formation of the hair shaft. The investigators described how a deficiency in the shaping and mechanical strengthening of the hair shaft that occurs in the UHS phenotype, which is characterized by dry, frizzy, and wiry hair that cannot be combed flat.

Dr Regina Betz

As a result of that previous work, "we base the assignment or confirmation of a clinical diagnosis of UHS on molecular genetic diagnostics," the authors write in the new study, rather than on the clinical appearance of the hair and the physical examination of the patient, with confirmation on microscopical examination of the hair shaft.

Following the 2016 study, Betz and colleagues were contacted by many clinicians and by the public through Facebook and other social media platforms with details about possible cases of UHS, an autosomal recessive disorder. Through these contacts, blood samples, saliva, or DNA was sent to the investigators' laboratory from 89 unrelated index patients (69 female patients, and 20 male patients) suspected of having UHS. This resulted in the identification of pathogenic variants in 69 cases, the investigators write.

"In the first study, we had 18 patients, and then we tried to collect as many as possible" to determine the main mechanism behind UHC, Betz said. One question is whether there are additional genes responsible for UHS, she noted. "Even now, we are not sure, because in 25% [of cases in the new study], we didn't find any mutation in the three known genes."

The current study resulted in the discovery of eight novel pathogenic variants in PADI3, which are responsible for 71.0% (76) of the 107 cases. Of those, "6 were single observations and 2 were observed in 3 and 2 individuals, respectively," the investigators write.

Children can grow out of this disorder, but it can persist into adulthood, Betz noted. Communication that investigators had with parents of the children with UHS revealed that these children are often the targets of bullying by other children, she added.

She and her and colleagues will continue this research and are currently studying adults who have UHS.

Jeff Donovan, MD, FRCPC, FAAD, a dermatologist and medical director of the Donovan Hair Clinic in Whistler, British Columbia, described these findings as fundamental to understanding UHS and creating pathways to possible treatments.

Dr Jeff Donovan

The study "identifies more about the genetic basis of this challenging condition," said Donovan, who is also clinical instructor in the Department of Dermatology at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, and president of the Canadian Hair Loss Foundation. "We really need this type of information in order to have any sort of clue in terms of how to treat it," he told Medscape.

"In the hair loss world, it's pretty clear that if you can understand the genetic basis of things, or the basic science of a condition, whether it's the basic genetics or the basic immunology, you give yourself the best chance to develop good treatments," said Donovan.

The article provides advanced genetic information of the condition, such that geneticists can test for at least three markers if they are suspecting UHS, Donovan observed.

Donovan also commented that UHS can have a detrimental impact on children with regard to socializing with their peers. "Having hair that sticks out and is very full like this is challenging because kids do get teased," he said.

"It is often the parents who are the most affected" when a child aged 2 to 5 years has a hair condition such as UHS. But at age 5 to 9, "children are developing self-identity and an understanding of various aspects of self-esteem and what they look like and what others look like. And that's where the teasing really starts. And that's where it does become troublesome."

Betz and Donovan have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

JAMA Dermatol. Published online August 31, 2022. Abstract

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One Gene, Variants Linked to Many Cases of Rare Hair Condition - Medscape

Jesse Weber collects stickleback with a minnow trap in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. Photo by Matt Chotlos

At first blush, sticklebacks might seem a bit pedestrian. The finger-length, unassuming fish with a few small dorsal spines are a ubiquitous presence in oceans and coastal watersheds around the northern hemisphere. But these small creatures are also an excellent subject for investigating the complex dance of evolutionary adaptations.

A new study published Sept. 8 in Science sheds light on the genetic basis by which stickleback populations inhabiting ecosystems near each other developed a strong immune response to tapeworm infections, and how some populations later came to tolerate the parasites.

Evolutionary biologist Jesse Weber, a professor of integrative biology at the University of WisconsinMadison, is one of the studys lead authors. Sticklebacks have long been a source of fascination not only for Weber, but for biologists all over the world so much so that the fish are among the most closely studied species.

An aerial view of an experiment in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska studying changes in stickleback traits in response to a new environment. Photo by Andrew Hendry

We arguably know more about stickleback ecology and evolution than any other vertebrate, says Weber.

This is in part because of sticklebacks rich abundance in places like Western Europe, where the fish have long been involved in biological study, Weber says. But the reasons for the species star status go well beyond happenstance.

Sticklebacks are also just super charismatic, Weber adds, noting the species complex courtship and territorial behaviors, as well as their diverse colors, shapes and sizes, all of which vary depending on the specific ecosystem they inhabit.

While sticklebacks diversity provides a foothold for understanding why animals evolve different traits, their value for scientists like Weber is boosted by their genetics. The fish have approximately as many genes as humans, but their genetic material is packed much more tightly sticklebacks genome is about one-sixth the size of the human genome.

Their genome is amazingly useful, Weber says. As far as we can tell, its just packed more densely. This means we can efficiently investigate their genetic diversity, allowing us to ask not only, Why do new traits evolve? but also, How are adaptations programmed into the genome?'

On top of all that, sticklebacks take well to captive breeding. A single female can produce hundreds of offspring multiple times over the course of just a few months.

All these traits make stickleback an almost uniquely valuable species for studying the genetic basis for many types of biological adaptations. So, when Weber arrived at UWMadison in the fall of 2020 from the University of Alaska Anchorage, he came with an entire fish colony in tow. Living in tanks, the colony contains fish from genetically distinct populations originating from different lakes and estuaries dotting northwestern North America.

A three spine stickleback with tapeworms recently dissected from the body of the same animal. Photo by Natalie Steinel

In their quest to understand why and how the fish sometimes evolve to look and behave very differently even in relatively nearby lake systems, Weber and his colleagues can crossbreed these populations in various ways and map changes to their genomes across multiple generations relatively quickly.

Much of Webers scientific career to this point has focused on developing tools to make this type of work more efficient. More recently, Weber has turned to using these tools to investigate coevolution the process by which two species adapt to the presence of one another within a shared habitat.

Specifically, Weber and his colleagues have sought to understand why sticklebacks in some lakes are much more likely to be infected with tapeworms than their counterparts in nearby lakes where the tapeworms are also present.

These investigations are beginning to bear fruit. Weber, along with colleagues at the University of Connecticut and University of Massachusetts Lowell, recently identified key genetic differences between the populations.

These differences indicate that all fish populations developed a robust immune response to the tapeworms when they first moved from the sea to new freshwater habitats near the end of the last ice age. But the immune response is costly in terms of both energy and reproduction. It also leads to a large amount of inflammation and internal scarring.

Webers work and that of his colleagues suggest that numerous populations eventually evolved to avoid these costs by ignoring, or in the lingo of immunologists tolerating, the parasite infestation. But the tolerant population still carries the genes that produce the immune response to the tapeworms.

While they havent yet tested it, Weber says it appears that these sticklebacks may have mutations to these fibrosis-associated genes that render them non-functional.

While the results are exciting for Weber, hes already looking toward future research that he hopes will further tell the genetic story of sticklebacks abundant adaptations, and by extension reveal biological processes with implications across the wide diversity of life on Earth.

Read more about the study and its findings from the University of Connecticut.

This study was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist fellowship, as well as grants from the National Institutes of Health (1R01AI123659-01A1, 1R01AI146168 and 1R35GM142891).

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How a small, unassuming fish helps reveal gene adaptations - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Gout is an inflammatory form of arthritis that affects the joints, often the big toe. An estimated 36% of men and 12% of women per year in Western countries experience gout.

This condition occurs when a waste byproduct known as urea builds up in your body, leading to hyperuricemia. Its caused by overproduction of urea or an inability to excrete it through urine.

While genetics play a large role in gout, other factors can also increase your risk, such as your diet and, potentially, your weight.

You may wonder, then, if you should attempt to lose weight to help manage your gout.

This article tells you all you need to know about gout and weight loss.

Gout is caused by hyperuricemia, or high urea levels.

Certain hereditary and lifestyle factors can increase your risk of hyperuricemia, such as:

While these factors may play a role, gout is hereditary, which means you may still develop it regardless of your lifestyle habits or weight.

The American College of Rheumatology currently recommends that people with overweight or obesity who have gout lose weight to help manage the condition and reduce their risk of flare-ups.

One large study found a link between body mass index (BMI) and gout incidence and flare-ups. Over the course of 7 years, people with obesity were significantly more likely to develop gout than people with normal BMIs (less than 25 kg/m2).

In addition, those whose BMIs decreased by 5% had 39% lower odds of gout flare-ups, while those whose BMIs increased by 5% had a 60% increased risk.

Another study that included 11,079 people also found a relationship between obesity and gout. Study participants who had obesity throughout adulthood and those who gained weight in adulthood had an 84% and 65% increased risk of gout, respectively.

A review of 10 studies on gout and weight loss found that losing 7.7 pounds (lbs.) (3.5 kg) or more may reduce gout attacks.

However, the authors argue that most studies on this topic are small and low quality, and they suggest that we need larger, higher quality clinical trials.

Further, a large 27-year study among 44,654 men found that 77% of gout cases may have been prevented through strategies such as maintaining a normal BMI, following a nutritious eating pattern, and limiting alcohol and diuretics.

In particular, the study found that excess adiposity, or fat stores, was one of the largest risk factors. Interestingly, adopting healthier lifestyle habits did not seem to be beneficial in men with obesity if their weight was not also reduced.

Ultimately, it appears that weight loss, and particularly fat loss, may help people with obesity and gout manage their symptoms.

If you want to lose weight to help manage gout symptoms, its important to do so in a safe and healthy way. That means its best to skip fad diets, which can lead to mental health challenges, nutrient deficiencies, weight gain, metabolic issues, and other effects.

For sustainable weight loss, try to adopt habits that you can continue to follow in the long term. Consider:

You may also wish to work with a registered dietitian, who can make personalized recommendations based on your medical history, food preferences, and budget.

In addition, its important to make sure youre staying active when you can.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, but any increase in physical activity is a great starting point.

Getting proper sleep and doing your best to manage stress are also important for well-rounded health and may support weight loss, if you choose to pursue it.

For most people, its generally safe to lose around 12 lbs. (0.450.9 kg) per week from a calorie deficit.

While losing weight may help with gout symptoms, there are other tips you can follow to manage the condition:

Gout is an inflammatory form of arthritis that can result from genetics or lifestyle factors.

While genetics play a large role, overweight or obesity can increase your risk of developing gout and experiencing recurring flare-ups. Thus, losing weight may be beneficial for some people.

However, keep in mind that gout is hereditary and may not be related to your weight or lifestyle habits.

If you want to manage your gout symptoms, there are other things you can do besides losing weight, such as eating a nutritious diet, limiting foods high in purines, avoiding alcohol, and managing any other chronic conditions you may have.

Its best to work with a healthcare professional such as a physician, as well as a registered dietitian, who can make personalized recommendations for your treatment including a nutritious, culturally appropriate eating pattern that can help you manage gout.

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Gout and Weight Loss: What You Need to Know - Healthline

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Sept. 12, 2022: There is no better time to cultivate cannabis Indica seeds than at the start of the year. Whether you are new to this practice or well-established in the industry, you will agree that finding these seeds is not an easy job.

Before going on your way to buy indica seeds, you need to do a little research on what factors to consider before you make the purchase. Navigating the cannabis seed market can be daunting as every state has different laws regarding the legality of the herb.

This article will discuss some of the things you should consider before buying cannabis Indica seeds.

Since the legality of cannabis can vary in every state, you need to figure out what the status of cannabis is in your state. If you live in a state with adult-use legalization, you have the ability to buy, produce, and sell cannabis in your own state as long as the seeds dont make it to other states.

Other states have medical marijuana legalization, which only allows people to buy cannabis if they have a medical card that states their disorder and the need for the herb.

Still, some other states have completely banned the use and sale of cannabis seeds, and in these state lines, you are not allowed to own, grow, buy, or sell marijuana. In case you are found to be in possession of these seeds, they are confiscated, and you will have to serve an appropriate sentence.

Before buying marijuana seeds, make sure you ask the breeder who produced them if they can mention the origin of the seeds, where they were grown, how they were crossed, or how they were backcrossed.

This information is essential because it allows you to spot poor breeding practices, which can result in unstable genetics. Some inexperienced breeders may cross a male and female plant only once, which will create a new hybrid, but unless they backcross it several times, you wont get consistent plants with the same genetic properties.

One of the most common problems that buyers face when buying cannabis autoflower seeds is scamming incidents. Especially when buying seeds online, make sure you are contacting a trusted seller. Make sure you do thorough research regarding the seller by visiting their website, checking reviews, and reading up on customers feedback to confirm the legitimacy of the seller.

After that, pick a seller with a good reputation and good-quality products that previous buyers have endorsed.

Growing marijuana demands you to have sufficient space and resources to successfully cultivate and store them. Since you are looking for cannabis Indica seeds, it is okay if you have limited space since these strains are usually smaller and take less space. Moreover, Indica strains typically grow faster and smaller.

Secondly, you need expert advice on how to nurture a specific strain of cannabis. Before buying the seeds, get in touch with a professional breeder who can help you understand the standard practices to grow Indicas and give you tips on the growing requirements.

Before buying weed seeds from a seller, you should compare their delivery periods to other sellers. It is obviously better to pick a seller that delivers quicker so that you dont have to wait around for weeks for your package. Ideally, the seller should deliver your product within seven days after you place the order.

Another crucial factor to consider is the packaging of the seeds. Sellers should ensure that the packaging they choose for the seeds is durable enough that it doesnt damage the seeds during transportation. Moreover, the packaging should be discreet in order to not raise suspicion.

Choose a seller that agrees with your payment method. You can detect a good seller by the way they offer multiple payment methods in order to make shopping convenient for their customers. It is better to opt for a seller that offers credit card or debit card options.

Purchasing cannabis Indica seeds is not an easy job, especially if you are a newbie. It takes time to learn how to navigate the market, so the best thing you can do is research and go with your instincts.

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Everything You Should Look At Before Buying Cannabis Indica Seeds - Caribbean and Latin America Daily News - News Americas

Today, we have more lonely, single men than ever before. This is particularly concerning as, unlike many women, men struggle to be on their own and suffer more as a result. In heterosexual relationships, women usually maintain friendships for the couple, but when men are single, they dont have someone pulling them to socialize with other people (usually another couple), causing loneliness.

The obvious cost of loneliness is the emotional turmoil it causes a person, however, the relationships we have in our lives have more of an impact on our physical health than many realize. In fact, the longest study on happiness showed that even the role of genetics proved less important to longevity than the level of satisfaction with relationships.

But this isnt just a concern for men. On a societal level, men who are single and unhappy cause issues because men are naturally more aggressive. As a result, theyre more likely to act out with violence.

Psychologist Dr. Greg Matos says that because men make up the majority of dating apps (upwards of 62%), women are overwhelmed by the number of options they have. Competition is greater than ever before and the chances of meeting someone in person are rarer, especially in the post-Covid, remote-working world we find ourselves in.

The problem with dating apps (among many) is that if a man is unable to present himself properly online, hes less likely to get matches. He may be more attractive in person, but if he cant take a decent picture or write a coherent bio, then women will swipe past him.

Before the rise of social media, men and women would typically settle down with someone in their local area. Now, with apps such as Instagram, women can build a profile and interact with high-status men from around the globe. This means that the man in a stable job who lives just down the road may not be as attractive a relationship prospect as he would have been for previous generations.

With a greater dating pool size, women are becoming increasingly more selective.

With a greater dating pool size, women are becoming increasingly more selective. According to Dr. Matos, women want men who are emotionally available, good communicators, and who share their values. They have less patience for poor communication skills today, which is creating a relationship skills gap that, if not addressed, will lead to fewer dating opportunities for some men.

Gone are the days when women would have to rely on a man to support them financially. Before women had equal access to education and jobs, they had no choice other than to settle down and marry a man with a stable income. This meant that even unattractive men who didnt have a lot going for them could offer financial security, at the very least. Now, what do they have to offer?

According to British journalist James Bloodworth, this is just one of the contributing factors to the growing number of single men. The low success on dating apps perpetuates the idea theyre undesirable to all women. With so few matches, they transpose this onto real life, believing they will be alone forever. When these men turn to mainstream outlets for advice, theyre provided with a Disney-fied version of the dating realm and are told to just be themselves and the right person will come along and love them as they are.

The low success on dating apps perpetuates the idea they're undesirable to all women.

These men soon realize that this is, in fact, not true and so go in search of alternative views, where they come across the manosphere. Bloodworth defines the manosphere as made up of pickup artists (PUAs), involuntary celibates (incels), mens rights activists, as well as Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW). PUAs try to lure women into bed with tactics and manipulation, whereas incels blame womens sexual liberation for their failure to find a partner. Mens rights activists express [] a nostalgic yearning for ancient societal rules and stereotypes, while MGTOWs aim to live their lives free from female contact.

For incels, in particular, they become part of an echo chamber that perpetuates the idea they all have no hope of ever finding a woman who will commit to them and will forever be alone. Many in the incel community blame feminism and the sexual revolution for their difficulties in finding a woman (and to a certain extent, this has influenced it), believing that there should be a mandated redistribution of sex to solve the issue. However, alongside enforced monogamy (this is culturally enforced monogamy, where men and women are encouraged by society to commit to one person, not the act of physically forcing women to be with undesirable men), the real answer to the problem lies with men themselves.

Contrary to the manosphere encouraging men to be emotional robots, Dr. Matos recommends men level up [their] mental health game. That means getting into some individual therapy to address [their] skills gap. It means valuing [their] own internal world and respecting [their] ideas enough to communicate them effectively. It means seeing intimacy, romance, and emotional connection as worthy of [their] time and effort.

Men can generate the love life they want.

Self-improvement seems to be a consistent message to the men suffering from fewer dates. During a conversation on the Triggernometry podcast, Bloodworth, who has done extensive research into the manosphere, recommends these men make a conscious effort to improve their lives in order to be more attractive to women. Going to the gym, picking a hobby, starting a business, and dressing well will not only make these men happier in themselves, but they may find women are more attracted to them too.

Although dating apps offer a quick, convenient solution to finding a partner, these apps omit the best parts of a person. Those with the most attractive photo may not have the kindest heart, and the guy with a poorly written bio might be the funniest person in every room. These are things we only learn from face-to-face interactions with people.

The constant rejection many men are facing on dating apps doesnt necessarily correlate to how successful they will be when meeting women in person, and its important men realize this. Daters filter out many suitable matches when swiping on dating apps, but attraction grows easier in real-life situations.

Luckily, its not all doom and gloom like the manosphere claims, and men can take this situation into their own hands and improve their chances of finding love. Whether thats through therapy or going to the gym, or both, by committing to themselves and their mental health, men can generate the love life they want. But will they step up to the plate?

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Why Are There More Lonely, Single Men Than Ever Before? - Evie Magazine

Call me Tumi, says Boitumelo Semete-Makototlela. This, after an awkward do we shake hands nowadays or not? in the doorway of her Centurion home. Unexpected winter rain had clogged up the roads and drawn out the school run, putting Tumi, casually dressed in a grey workout tracksuit, slightly behind schedule.

I drop the two of them off at school myself every morning because its important to me that we use that time to connect, she says, adjusting her stylish spectacles.

Semete-Makokotlelas son (7) and daughter (11) have left half-packed bags in the den ahead of a week with their paternal grandparents. I am going away with Khotso [her husband, a civil engineer]. If we didnt schedule time away together, we would quickly become strangers. Of course the kids are insisting we install Wi-Fi at gogos, Semete-Makototlela laughs.

Their 43-year-old mother got the job of running the countrys medicines regulator, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (Sahpra), at a pivotal point: three months before Covid hit South Africa in 2020.

At the age of 39, considerably younger than many of her predecessors, the relatively obscure public entity Semete-Makokotlela was leading was transformed practically overnight into a household name in the middle of a political maelstrom.

SARS-CoV-2, the rapidly changing virus that causes Covid-19, triggered a noisy scramble for the approval of Covid tests, jabs and treatments within a year of her appointment, leaving the relatively young scientist with the task of not only reducing Sahpras approval processes from years to months, but also facing extreme political pressure from parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to approve the use of jabs from countries such as China and Russia, whose products the EFF believed were deliberately being overlooked in exchange for shots from Western countries.

No medicine or health product can be used in South Africa without the manufacturers of such goods submitting data for Sahpra to review. Sahpra then studies the information to see if it accurately reflects how effective (or not) the product is, and if its safe to use.

In June last year, EFF leader Julius Malema threatened Semete-Makokotlela with militant mass action if Sahpra didnt approve the Russian and Chinese jabs within seven days.

Semete-Makokotlela held the line. I was worried about the safety of my children and husband, but I wasnt scared. I was going to stand up against improper influences. To me it was clear: we were going to make decisions based on science, and no movement or political party was going to change that.

Although Sahpra gave Chinas Sinovac jab conditional emergency approval that July, it rejected Russias Sputnik V four months later because of a lack of safety data.

Semete-Makokotlelas smooth handling of things wasnt unexpected.

According to her PhD supervisor, Antonel Olckers (Semete-Makokotlela received a doctorate in biochemistry from North West University in 2005), [With Tumis appointment] people were asking, dont you think shes too young? Arent you worried shell fail?

But Olckers simply shook her head and responded: Give this woman the tools and get out of her way.

Semete-Makokotlela was born in Soweto in 1979, the first child of Benjamin and Sheila Semete. She starts to say it was a typical upbringing, but catches herself and instead says: Well, South Africas an interesting place it was, even then. Her parents lived and worked (mostly worked) with the single-minded purpose of buying a good education for their three children.

To enable their work, I was sent to live with my aunt in Orlando, sleeping on the kitchen floor because the house was small and very full. I laugh about this all the time with my cousins, and wecanlaugh because it was a joyful time.

The phrase joyful time often precedes the telling of less happy times, and in Semete-Makokotlelas case, the event that marked the end of her carefree childhood was a move to Zone 2, Diepkloof.

My mom wanted to move us to a better school a Catholic school.

She liked the school I loved what the nuns were about the order and the cleanliness but Diepkloof? Not so much.

The area was largely Tsonga-speaking, but I didnt speak Tsonga. And being from this prim and proper school, we were given a hard time by kids from less privileged schools.

Semete-Makokotlelas response was to stay indoors and dream of leaving.

The rejection of ones circumstances can be such a powerful driver in life, and it can do that positively or negatively. I think my own life has been greatly shaped by a desire to escape.

Political unrest in the late 1980s led to repeated school shutdowns and stayaways, compelling Semete-Makokotlelas parents to place their three children in suburban schools nearer central Johannesburg. Leaving for school at dawn and arriving home at dusk became the norm, and with her sports bag in hand and wearing her Northview High blazer, Tumis alienation intensified.

Soweto is a very open and communal society, and the unsaid expectation is that you will socialise quite well, but I didnt fit in. Even now, when I go back, it is just to visit my

Her voice trails off, until with the resolve of someone who had contemplated not mentioning it, she says: My father passed away a month ago yesterday.

He was a good man. People, especially moms friends, keep saying that he was such a good father, a good husband.

In her eulogy, Semete-Makokotlela said she is who she is because of the sacrifices her father made.

I dont have memories of going on holiday with my dad, because he chose to work. He missed my PhD graduation. I was shattered.Does work mean that much to you, that you cant come, just today?But that is the man he was; so many big moments that he contributed to financially, yet was never present for. It created a void, but you get over it because you realise thats how he loves.

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From her father, Semete-Makokotlela learnt a work ethic that would serve her well at the University of Pretoria. The institution accepted her application to study biomedical technology, a choice inspired by the most fantastic Standard 8 (Grade 10) biology teacher, who introduced the subject of genetics.

But for this self-described girl from Soweto, Tuks was freedom an almost disastrous dose, in fact.

I loved the diversity of the place and the fact that I was side-by-side with the [prestigious] St Marys girls Id envied from a distance at high school. I loved partying in Hatfield, too, and failed the first semester.

Fearing her parents judgement, Tumi pivoted.

I was, like, this is it Im going to create structure and I am going to learn to self-regulate, and I did.

Semete-Makokotlelas focus is legendary among those who know her. Unparalleled, is how Olckers describes it. The mention of her masters and doctoral thesis supervisor elicits a grin from Tumi.

Wooh, that woman! She made us work, hey. When you submitted a thesis chapter, you just knew it was coming back with red marks all over, to the point where, today, I use a blue pen when critiquing students work!

If her fathers example taught her about hard work, it was in Olckers lab that she learnt about uncompromising standards.

Tumi says: Sometimes we would sleep in the lab, rush home in the morning to shower, and come back whatever it took to avoid disappointing Antonel. She was very firm, but you knew it was well intended she really wanted all of us to succeed. And we have.

Olckers has a photo from Tumis graduation ceremony where she stands alongside fellow students Marco Alessandrini, now the chief technical officer of a biosciences company in Switzerland, and (now professor) Wayne Towers, who chairs the ethics committee at North West University.

They were an exceptional class, come to think of it, says Olckers, who demands three things of her students that they write a paper, present at a conference and, if at all possible, work overseas, because a doctorate isnt a Nobel prize it doesnt set you up for life. As a scientist, you compete internationally. Its not enough to be the best in South Africa.

After receiving her doctoral degree in biochemistry, Semete-Makokotlela joined the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as a researcher and then took up a postdoctoral research fellowship with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

She recalls: Man, it was a massive confidence boost for me to realise that we are on par in South Africa. The equipment was the same they just had more of it, and from a knowledge perspective I found I knew the same things, and some things I knew better.

The sometimes reclusive scientist also came to a new appreciation of her home countrys social warmth.

Switzerland, for all its virtues, is a terribly lonely place people keep to themselves. I missed being in a taxi with people chatting away.

Semete-Makokotlela returned to South Africa in 2011 mindful of something Olckers used to repeat: that most students will always be followers only a few have what it takes to lead.

I have never felt that I am innately a leader, she says, explaining that her confidence in this regard built gradually, with tenure.

I am an introspective person and as I gained in experience, I realised I do bring a few things to an organisation, like an ability to articulate clearly what I want to get done in the current moment, and to then follow through and get things done.

A two-year stint as a Mckinsey Leadership Fellow exposed Semete-Makokotlela to the world of management consulting, where she witnessed first-handhow biotechnology businesses operate. This, as much as her experience as a researcher, caught the attention of McLean Sibanda, who recruited Tumi to lead a biotechnology incubator within a Gauteng provincial government project called the Innovation Hub. Here, she helped small and medium-sized businesses with the commercialisation of their biotech innovations.

Sibanda found Tumi to be teachable, a great listener, but also someone with strong ideas all good traits for any leader in a fast-moving industry.

He wasnt surprised to learn, after two years, that the CSIR wanted Tumi back, this time in an executive role as the head of the biosciences department. In many ways, it was a foreshadowing of the scrutiny Tumi would come under at Sahpra.

When Tumi learnt of the Sahpra opportunity from a pharmacist friend, she was initially sceptical.

I had never seen myself in a regulatory space, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised I understand something of the role and workings of the national health products regulator, and I care about its proper functioning.

She applied for the job, thinking, I know Im a person that gets things done at least I can make a small difference.

According to Professor Helen Rees, who chairs the Sahpra board, Tumi was appointed primarily because her vision of what she wanted to do was so clearly and powerfully articulated.

Semete-Makokotlela knew she needed to get myself a good team and she did. But, she says, they probably didnt like me much the first two years. I mean, we didnt sleep, we worked over weekends, we worked at night.

And its that type of determination, Rees says, that Tumi uses to pull through difficult times.

You might not know this, but shes a serious triathlete, as is her husband. When she gets home, she doesnt sit on the couch shes talking to you from her bike. If her phones off, shes probably swimming across some or other dam. DM/MC

This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism. Sign up for the newsletter.

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The Roets family of the Eastern Capes Barkly East district has been associated with South Devon cattle for approximately 90 years. Yet it was only in 2017 that PD Roets registered a stud. Mike Burgess visited him to find out more about his commitment to the selective breeding of South Devons in this cold, mountainous area.

Our familys long association with the South Devon breed has now been registeredin a system of science and measurement, says PD Roets, the fourth generation of his family to farm these cattle in the Eastern Cape highlands, but the first to register a stud.

This took place five years ago. I love the South Devon and wanted to better manage the breeds [genetic] potential in my beef operation. There are costs associated [with having a stud], but theyre a small price to pay for crucial benefits like being more scientific about selecting cows.

You cant farm effectively by bringing in cows at weaning and culling the poor-looking ones, because they could be the best-producing animals.

Today, Roetss South Devon enterprise consists of 120 medium-framed stud and 80 commercial breeding females. It forms part of an extensive livestock operation, which includes Merinos, on 3 600ha in the Barkly East district.

Part of this area comprises the Roets family farm, Percivale. The South Devons are run exclusively on the veld, while 50ha of pastures are used for the lambing of 900 Merino ewes and to fatten livestock before they are culled for the market.

Roetss great-grandfather, Jannie, started crossing South Devons with Afrikaners on the family farm in the 1930s. This programme laid the foundation for his son, JPJ, and Jannie (his grandson, PDs father) to run hardy and adapted commercial South Devons in the rugged and cold mountainous country of the extreme north-eastern Cape.

Theyre medium-framed cattle that can walk the mountains, says Roets. Also, the cold can be harsh on cattle, but the South Devon has a thick coat, which it loses in summer. Having grown up with South Devons, Roets unsurprisingly developed an affinity for the breed.

This later turned into a dogged determination to be the first Roets to register a stud. After matriculating at Marlow Agricultural High School in Cradock in 2006, he spent ayear on the farm.

He then went to work for an irrigation company in Kansas in the US, earning enough money to purchase 20 top commercial South Devon cows from his father. This investment in 2009 kick-started Roetss journey towards registering the Percivale South Devon Stud within the family farming operation.

From 2009, Roets began to build genetic diversity in his herd by acquiring bulls from the respected (albeit now deregistered) Andiro South Devon herd of Ian Turnbull near Barkly East. In 2016, he bought his first stud bull, JM 14 1806, from the Miller family near Cathcart, owners of the Winston South Devon Stud.

This animal has proved hugely influential. Buying him was one of my best decisions. I still use him in the stud and commercial herds, says Roets. Another notable acquisition was the 2018South Devon BLUP Bull of the Year from the Bellary South Devon Stud of Dan Kriek near Tweeling in the Free State.

And in recent years, Roets has also acquired Winston South Devon Stud bulls bred from polled New Zealand South Devon genetics. In addition, he has focused on purchasing quality female animals to boost the genetic depthof his herd.

In 2018, for example, he bought 25 heifers (some fully registered with SA Stud Book, and others Appendix A animals), followed by 20 in-calf stud cows in 2019, all from the Millers.

By 2019, Roets had marketed three performance tested (Phase D) Percivale South DevonStud bulls at the annual Winston South Devon Production Sale. This sale has represented a valuable marketing platform for the genetics built up by Roets, and he achieved a top price of R50 000 for a bull in 2020.

He also sells a few bulls annually from Percivale and breeds a significant number of his own bulls for use in both his stud and commercial herds.

Although he regards the production of top-quality bulls as crucial, Roets stresses the importance of breeding hardy and fertile female animals that produce fast-growing calves. His mediumframed cows, weighing on average 490kg at weaning, are expected to produce on the veld with a protein lick in winter and a phosphate lick in summer.

They are treated for internal and external parasites in July, and six weeks before mating to ensure optimal production. The bulls are put to the cows in single-sire herds in a breeding season starting on 20 November and lasting for three months.

Conception rates of 95% to 99% have been achieved, although in the current season, an outbreak of three-day stiff-sickness pushed the conception rate down to just below 90%. The herds exceptional fertility is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that it achievedthe best average herd intercalving period of all South African South Devon studs for the past four consecutive years.

This year, the herd achieved an average intercalving period of 368 days. Heifers go to the bull for the first time at two years at an average weight of 400kg, as they require time to grow out sufficiently on the tough, extensive conditions of Barkly East before mating.

Cows wean just over 50% of their own weight, producing weaners with an average weight of between 220kg and 250kg, with the oldest at weaning being seven months and the youngest four months old.

All high-quality weaned heifers are retained in the stud herd, and those that dont make selection are used as replacements in the commercial herd.

To improve selection pressure in the herd, Roets plans to boost his stud to as many as 450 animals at the expense of his Merinos. Asked if he has any regrets about registering a stud, he replies: I have only one that I didnt start earlier! Managing a stud has been a pleasure, especially as South Devon breeders like the Millers have been so helpfull

Phone PD Roets on 082 645 9373, or email him at [emailprotected]

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South Devon cows and heifers: the central pillar of stud efficiency - Farmer's Weekly SA

BY GARETH WILLMER

Game theory mathematics is used to predict outcomes in conflict situations. Now it is being adapted through big data to resolve highly contentious issues between people and the environment.

Game theory is a mathematical concept that aims to predict outcomes and solutions to an issue in which parties with conflicting, overlapping or mixed interests interact.

In theory, the game will bring everyone towards an optimal solution or equilibrium. It promises a scientific approach to understanding how people make decisions and reach compromises in real-world situations.

Game theory originated in the 1940s in the field of economics. The Oscar-winning movieA Beautiful Mind (2001)is about the life of mathematician John Nash (played by Russell Crowe), who was awarded the1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciencesfor his work in this area.

Although the concept has been around for many decades, the difference now is the ability to build it into computer-based algorithms, games and apps to apply it more broadly, said Professor Nils Bunnefeld, a social and environmental scientist at the University of Stirling, UK. This is particularly true in the age of big data.

Game theory as a theoretical idea has long been around to show solutions to conflict problems, he said. We really see the potential to move this to a computer to make the most of the data that can be collected, but also reach many more people.

Conservation conflicts

Prof Bunnefeld led the EU-backedConFooBioproject, which applied game theory to scenarios where people were in conflict over resources and the environment. His team wanted to develop a model for predicting solutions to conflicts between food security and biodiversity.

The starting point was that when we have two or more parties at loggerheads, what should we do, for example, with land or natural resources? Should we produce more food? Or should we protect a certain area for biodiversity? he said.

The team focused on seven case studies, ranging from conflicts involving farmers and conservation of geese in Scotland to ones about elephants and crop raiding in Gabon.

ConFooBio conducted more than 300 game workshops with over 900 people in numerous locations including Gabon, Kenya, Madagascar, Tanzania and Scotland.

Ecological challenges

Prof Bunnefeld realised it became necessary to step back from pure game theory and instead build more complex games to incorporate ecological challenges the world currently faces, like climate change. It also became necessary to adopt a more people-based approach than initially planned, to better target the games.

Participants included people directly involved in these conflicts, and in many cases that were very unhappy, said Prof Bunnefeld.

Through the games, we got high engagement from communities, even from those where conflict is high and people can be reluctant to engage in research. We showed that people are able to solve conflicts when they trust each other and have a say, and when they get adequate payments for conservation efforts.

The team developed a modelling framework to predict wildlife management outcomes amid conflict. Freely available, it has been downloaded thousands of times from theConFooBio website.

Conservation game

The researchers also created an accessible game about conservation calledCrops vs Creatures, in which players decide between a range of options from shooting creatures to allocating habitat for conservation.

Prof Bunnefeld hopes these types of game become more available on a mainstream basis via app stores such as one on conflicts in the realm of biodiversity and energy justice in a separate initiative he works on called the Beacon Project.If you tell people you have an exciting game or you have a complex model, which one are they going to engage with? I think the answer is pretty easy, he said.

In the ConFooBio project, weve been able to show that our new models and algorithms can adapt to new situations and respond to environmental and social changes, added Prof Bunnefeld. Our models are useful for suggesting ways of managing conflicts between stakeholders with competing objectives.

Social media dynamics

Another project,Odycceus, harnessed elements of game theory to investigate what social media can tell us about social dynamics and potentially assist in the early detection of emerging social conflicts.

They analysed the language, content and opinions of social media discussions using data tools.

Such tools are required to analyse the vast amount of information in public discourse, explained Eckehard Olbrich, coordinator of the Odycceus project, and a physicist at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig, Germany.

His work is partially motivated by trying to understand the reasons behind the polarisation of views and the growth of populist movements like far-right organisation Pegida, which was founded in his hometown of Dresden in 2014.

The team created a variety of tools accessible to researchers via an open platform known asPenelope. These included the likes of theTwitter Explorer, which enables researchers to visualise connections between Twitter users and trending topics to help understand how societal debates evolve.

Others included two participatory apps known as the Opinion Observatory and the Opinion Facilitator, which enable people to monitor the dynamics of conflict situations, such as by helping interlink news articles containing related concepts.

Patterns of polarisation

These tools have already allowed us to get a better insight into patterns of polarisation and understanding different world views, said Olbrich.

He said, for example, that his team managed to develop a model about the effect of social feedback on polarisation thatincorporated game-theoretic ideas.

The findings suggested that the formation of polarised groups online was less about the traditional concept of social media bubbles and echo chambers than the way people build their identity by gaining approval from their peers.

He added that connecting the dots between game theory and polarisation could have real-life applications for things like how best to regulate social media.

In a game-theoretic formulation, you start with the incentives of the players, and they select their actions to maximise their expected utility, he said. This allows predictions to be made of how people would change their behaviour if you, for instance, regulate social media.

Olbrich added that he hopes such modelling can furnish a better understanding of democracy and debates in the public sphere, as well as indicating to people better ways to participate in public debates. Then we would have better ways to deal with the conflicts we have and that we have to solve, he said.

But there are also significant challenges in using game theory for real-world situations, explained Olbrich.

Varying outlooks

For example, incorporating cultural differences into game theory has proved difficult because such differences may mean two people have hugely varying ways of looking at a problem.

The problem with game theory is that its looking for solutions to the way a problem can be solved, added Prof Bunnefeld.

Having looked at conflicts over the last few years, to me it is clear that we cant solve conflicts, we can only manage them. Building in factors like climate change and local context is also complex.

But game theory is a useful way to explore models, games and apps for dealing with conflicts, he said. Game theory is, from its very simple basics to quite complex situations, a good entry point, said Prof Bunnefeld.

It gives us a framework that you can work through and also captures peoples imagination.

Research in this article was funded via the EUsEuropean Research Council and originally publishedin Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation Magazine.

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Searching the skies for the building blocks of life in the universe - Modern Diplomacy

This story originally appeared inbioGraphic, an online magazine about nature and sustainability powered by the California Academy of Sciences.

On a golden morning in early October, two graduate students from New Mexico State University plunge into the icy current of Leandro Creek. The small waterway flows through the 550,000-acre Vermejo Park Ranch, a reserve in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. Today, the crew will trace the streams course toward its headwaters on the flanks of a volcanic cone called Ash Mountain, in search of an unusual fish.

Kelsie Field, 25, a graduate student in the Department of Wildlife and Conservation Ecology wears a pair of worn gray waders and totes two 8-gallon buckets, one full of water, the other, of scientific geartest tubes, an electronic scanner, surgical implements. Michael Miller, 30, a fellow graduate student in the same department, also clad in waders, shoulders a large, waterproof backpack containing a battery attached to an electrode that resembles a metal detector like those used by treasure hunters.

Michael Miller and Kelsie Field, graduate student researchers from New Mexico State University, electrofish a small stream that runs through Vermejo Park Ranch.

This, Miller dips into the creek, squeezing the handle to send some 300 volts through the water. While the crews rubber boots insulate them from the shock, the resident fish are exposed to the electrical current. Stunned, they drift to the surface just long enough for Miller to net them and deposit them in Fields bucket. Most measure around 10 inches. Some are no larger than a pinky. Occasionally, though, Millers handle bends sharply as he nets a hunchbacked specimen of 16 inches or moreapex predators gorged on smaller fish, in this waterway scarcely wider than a city sidewalk.

There are just two species here. One is an embattled native, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki virginalis), distinguished by its cream-colored skin, mottling of black spots and a vibrant orange slash under the jaw. Once widely distributed in rivers and streams across northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, the Rio Grande cutthroat is now found across a mere 10 percent of its historical range. And like others among the dozen or so subspecies of cutthroat trout in the western United States, today its reeling under the pressures of climate change, habitat loss, andin the case of Leandro Creeka hardy intruder.

Which brings us to the more prolific species writhing in Millers netthe brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). The smaller brookies are sleek and silvery. The adults, though, wear their spawning finery, their sides a riot of red and blue spots, their bellies orange as a ripe mandarin. The fishs colors are otherworldly, as if they have somehow absorbed into the riotous canvas of their skin the ragged beauty of the place in which they live.

Michael Miller, a graduate student at New Mexico State University. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

How this beautiful interloper from eastern North America got to this place is unclear, beyond that it was part of a human-aided diaspora that loosed brook trout into high-altitude lakes and creeks across the West, from northwest Washington to southern New Mexico. There, brookies voracious appetites and rapid sexual maturation have spelled trouble not only for native trout like bull, rainbow, California golden, and cutthroat, which they outcompete, but also for a host of other aquatic organisms, including frogs and salamanders.

As Miller and Field shock and scoop their way upcreek, though, a pattern that could be the key to Leandro Creeks salvation becomes apparent. Brook trout may greatly outnumber the Rio Grande cutthroat here, in some stretches by more than five to one, but nearly every single one of the brookies the crew captures is male.

Researcher Michael Miller presents acutthroattrout from a small stream on Vermejo Park Ranch. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

Thats because many are a lab-produced variety known as Trojan brook trout. They are unique in that they carry not one, but two copies of the Y chromosome that codes maleness; they have no X chromosome to pass on. Unlike many creatures, including humans, fish can survive without an X, and seem unimpaired by the lack. And since 2018, Miller, the lead researcher on the project, and his predecessors have been carrying out a bold new experiment, stocking various streams across the Vermejo reserve with this strain in an attempt to tilt the brook trout sex ratio so far male that eventually the population will stop breeding and blink out on its own. Similar efforts are also underway in a handful of creeks in Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and Nevada plans to embark on its own stocking program this summer.

Until now, the main tool to eliminate invasive fish species has been the potent chemical rotenone. The trouble is that it also kills all the other fish, including the ones you are trying to conserve, says Colleen Caldwell, a professor of fish and wildlife at New Mexico State University and a principal investigator overseeing the Leandro Creek project. Researchers are still trying to understand if Trojan trout behave enough like wild male trout to convince females to breed with them, as well as whether they can thrive enough in their new environment to tip the scales in the Rio Grande cutthroats favor. But the hope is that managers can use the imposters as a precision scalpel to excise brookies from stream systems, rather than bombing them with an indiscriminate chemical agent.

Despite the methods promise, modifying organisms into flesh-and-blood weapons to achieve ecological ends raises questions about both ethics and unforeseen outcomes. No matter what people say, the long-term effects of these things are just unknown, says Marc Bekoff, an emeritus biology professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a prominent behavioral biologist. Their goals might seem laudable today, but with rapidly reproducing organisms, you might not even know whats going to happen in half a year.

Is the Trojan brook trout a more humane tool for saving native fish, as its proponents insist? Or will it cause its own cascade of problemsa 21st-century version of what well-meaning people wrought when they unleashed its ancestors?

Brook trout, native to the eastern United States, made their way into streams and lakes across the West thanks to European settlers looking to bring with them a small, living piece of their adopted homeland. | Photo by Nick Hawkins

Brook trout are, in some ways, a good problem to have. They can live only in clean, cold water, so their presence indicates a waterway untainted by pollution. Fittingly, their scientific name, Salvelinus fontinalis, translates to living in springs, evoking the frigid, rushing streams where the fish thrive. Twenty thousand years ago, at the height of the Pleistocene, brook trout were confined to waterways at the margins of glaciers, which extended deep into the interior of North America. As the glaciers ebbed, the species spread throughout the Appalachians, Great Lakes, and deep into the Canadian interior. But an insurmountable natural barrier stopped their spread farther west: The Mississippi River was too warm for them, barring access to high-altitude waterways on the other side of the continent.

It was newly arrived Europeans who helped them cross that barrierand in large numbers. As the American frontier expanded, settlers, perhaps nostalgic for a living piece of their adopted eastern homelands, planted brook trout in streams and lakes in the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada. The railways sped the brook trouts westward migration, with trains carrying specially designed fish cars filled with eastern species, including striped bass, brown trout, and brook trout. The fish-laden trains traveled the rail lines along the shores of rivers and lakes. From there, the piscine cargo could easily be transferredby way of trucks or milk cans hauled by handinto the water.

A pseudoscientific concept known as acclimatization, in vogue in the late 19th century, also accelerated the process. Contrary to todays environmental orthodoxy, adherents believed that introduced species improved ecological conditions. As author Kim Todd writes in Tinkering With Eden, Ponds and lakes, rather than being viewed as complex ecosystems, were treated as outdoor aquariums waiting to be filled. Even the Sierra Club, which now runs campaigns against invasive species, was involved, transplanting large numbers of brook and other trout into lakes and streams along its guided routes through the High Sierra so that paying customers could have an authentic wilderness experience.

Trojan brook trout in a small stream in New Mexico's Vermejo Park Ranch. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

Perhaps the single most prolific transplanter of brook trout was Finis Mitchell, a Wyoming railroad worker turned fishing guide. During the Great Depression, Mitchell and his wife, Emma, carried an estimated 2.5 million fingerling brook, rainbow, golden, and brown trout in milk cans to lakes across Wyomings Wind River Range. These waters were all virgin and were just full of water lice, leeches, freshwater shrimp, Mitchell wrote in his slim guidebook and memoir Wind River Trails. [T]hose fish just gorged themselves. Some of the brook trout weighed three pounds [after] the third year.

Later, state and federal wildlife officials stocked remote lakes from airplanes and helicopters for the benefit of anglersa practice that continues to this day. By these thousands of acts, the brook trout became a fixtureand, by most ecological measures, a pestin waterways across the West. I remain fully confident that if a nuclear holocaust should eliminate most of Earths life forms, wrote Edwin Pister, a long-time fisheries biologist for the California Department of Fish and Game, survivors would include not only cockroaches but brook trout as well.

As a destructive force, they have had plenty of company. Forty-two percent of endangered species in the US have been significantly impacted by invasive species, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Among aquatic species, the numbers are starker, with invasives implicated in 70 percent of extinctions.

After the passage of landmark environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act in the 1970s, fisheries managers began a slow pivot away from their primary mission of rearing and releasing fish. Today, though they still stock some sport fisheries, state and federal wildlife agencies also work to restore the native populations and ecosystems they helped compromise, by joining the war on invasive species. In the case of brook trout, theyve waged that war with massive volumes of poison and vast piles of tax dollars, often with little result.

Enter the Trojan brook trout.

Fish culturist Tom Lindenmuth oversees the Trojan trout rearing operation at the Hayspur Fish Hatchery. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

On a snowy day in November, I visit the Hayspur Fish Hatchery, near Sun Valley, Idaho. The Trojan brook trout that inhabit Leandro Creek were made here, as were those plying streams in other states. Tom Lindenmuth, a fish culturist and manager who oversees the operation at the 115-year-old state hatchery, greets me at the front door, pulling his mask tightly over his nose, which accentuates his nasal northern-tier accent and causes his glasses to fog up. Sorry, but the state says weve got to wear these, he says.

The program got its start in 2008 at a different Idaho hatchery, the brainchild of Dan Schill, a now-retired fish biologist from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Schill grew up fishing for brookies in the wooded creeks of the East and developed an ambivalence toward the species that drove his work. The reason Im a trout stream biologist is because I fell in love with the native brook trout in western Pennsylvania, he tells me. But of course out west theyve had a pretty darn negative effect, particularly on our cutthroat stocks.

Schill first encountered the idea of producing super-male fish when a presenter at a conference offhandedly mentioned something called the Trojan Y chromosome approach near the end of a talk. It was all a theoretical thing, he recalls. But it said if you could create a YY broodstock of an invasive fish and put it on the landscape then, in theory, you could shift the sex ratio to all males. The process begins with forcing male brook trout to undergo a sex change.

My first stop with Lindenmuth is the brick edifice of the incubation building, where this transformation takes place in dozens of blue cylindrical tanks. Inside these early-rearing vats are dozens of larval male brook trout, which look more like tiny brine shrimp with their egg sacs still attached. Once the sacs have been absorbed and the fish are ready to feed, attendants give them food coated with estradiol, a form of the female hormone estrogen. Over a two-month period, the estradiol turns their sperm-producing testes into ovaries, and the genetically male fish become capable of laying eggs. But the process doesnt end there.

At the Hayspur Fish Hatchery. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

When hatchery workers breed these fish with normal XY males, 25 percent of their offspring will be female with two X chromosomes. Fifty percent will be typical males with an X and Y chromosome. But 25 percent will be the special variety key to the genetic population control scheme: males with two Y chromosomes. Some of the YYs will be given estradiol, causing them to form ovaries and produce eggs. These feminized YY fish are then crossed with YY males to create the hatcherys broodstock. The other YYs will be transplanted into streams. If and when these super-male brook trout fertilize the eggs of wild female brook trout, they will produce 100 percent male offspring.

Opposite the rearing vats, Lindenmuth shows me several rows of incubation cabinets filled with dozens of small trays divided into squares. Within each square are hundreds of brook trout eggs, the lot of which were laid by a single feminized YY male. He removes a tray and gently scoops up a handful of glistening, golden spheres. The eggs, he explains, will be treated with Ovadine, a chemical that strengthens their shells for shippingso much so that they will bounce like a rubber ball if dropped on the floor. Then, they will be packed in wet paper towels and ice and mailed to hatcheries in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Trays of trout eggs await shipping to hatcheries in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and New Mexico. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

To keep estradiol from leaching into surrounding waterways and causing a similar sex transformation in wild fish, Lindenmuth says, the hatchery uses a sophisticated water recycling system comprised of several large, wall-mounted charcoal filters, which cleanse hundreds of gallons of water every hour before discharging it to a septic system. And because the fish directly exposed to estradiol never leave the hatchery, Lindenmuth explains, there is no danger that they will dose waterways, or fishermen who might catch and eat them, with a concentrated dose of hormones.

We leave the incubation building and make our way across the snowy ground to two metal silos that house sexually mature broodstock fish after theyre sorted. Within each building is a tank divided by a central barrier. Lindenmuth walks out onto the narrow walkway above one. On the left side, a school of sperm-producing YY males swims frenetically in a kaleidoscopic swirl, easily a hundred strong. On the right, a school of feminized, egg-laying YY males cruise along the tanks perimeter.

Lindenmuth grabs a long-handled net and jabs it into the left side of the tank. The metal pole strains and bounces as he withdraws a fish, then places the net flat on the walkway. Nearly two feet long and weighing a pound and a half, the fish is a YY male. In the dim light, the blood-red slash of its gills glows against the metallic sheen of its skin. Here lays the biological scalpel. But I have to wonder: Does this blade cut both ways?

Miller and Field scan a brook trout. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

Back at the Vermejo reserve, Miller and Field continue upstream. Every 50 meters, they pause and sit on the streambank at designated intervals marked with pink flagging to take stock of their catch. Miller reaches into the ice-cold water of the bucket. Suddenly his forearms tense and he raises a sleek silhouetteanother YY brook trout. Well over half the fish they count at this given waypoint are of the Trojan variety. Field makes quick swipe of the fish with a handheld scanner, which returns a beep. This indicates that the fish contains a scannable PIT tag, no larger than a grain of rice, which contains vital information such as where and when the fish was hatched and when it was released. As Field jots the measurement onto a spreadsheet, Miller inspects the fish quickly, sliding thumb and index finger along its underbelly, which produces a spurt of milt, a milky substance containing sperm. Miller then notes the missing adipose fin, clipped by workers at the Los Ojos Hatchery, near Chama, months earlieranother clear sign that this is a Trojan.

The team, now joined by seasonal field technicians Cameron Cole and Valentin Perez, who earlier were electrofishing a rugged stretch of the upper watershed, quickly counts the larger fish. Then Miller delicately retrieves the fingerlings from the bucket, enthusiastically calling out genetics! These small fish are cause for excitement because they may be the offspring of YY males that are breeding with wild females in the creek. By the end of the second spawning season, in 2020, 75 percent of the fish captured in Leandro Creek were male. Moreover, almost 30 percent of the juveniles captured from test streams around Vermejo were the male offspring of YY brook trout, according to lab analysis of a specific sex-marker in the fishs genes. Miller hopes this years percentages will be higher. Only a genetic test will tell for sure. Using a small pair of surgical scissors, Miller cuts away part of the fishs anal fin, then drops it into a vial, which will be sent to a lab for analysis.

Researcher Michael Miller snips off a small piece of fin from a young brook trout. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

The debate around genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, and their potential to harm native species is a heated one. But while there is little doubt that scientists have reshuffled the Trojan trouts existing chromosomes, they havent inserted any foreign genes into their DNA, says Schill. That makes them different from a GMO, like, say, the AquAdvantage salmon featured in a previous bioGraphic story. This transgenic strain of Atlantic salmon, produced in a lab for farming, contains a gene inserted from Pacific Chinook salmon that allows the fish to grow faster than their wild counterparts. Opponents fear that these genetically altered salmonwhich they call Frankenfishcould outcompete or pass their genes along to wild Atlantic salmon populations.

Chemically altering an organism in pursuit of a conservation goal might seem unconventional, but its not a radical departure from the kinds of things that conservationists are generally trying to do, says Ron Sandler, a professor of philosophy at Northeastern University who specializes in bioethics. And its much less radical than assisted evolution, where novel genes are inserted to make creatures better suited to cope with human-altered environments. Sandler points to a new strain of American chestnut that biologists have modified with genes from wheat plants to make them more resistant to the fungal blight that nearly wiped out the trees, which once covered a vast swath of the eastern US. While these techniques might be effective at targeting a few high-interest species, theyre not an effective tool against the bigger crisis, says Sandler. They dont address the underlying causes, which are emissions, extraordinarily high levels of consumption, and human population growth.

New Mexico's Pecos Wilderness provides perfect habitat for cutthroat and brook trout alike. | Photo by Christina Selby

There are other ethical issues to consider too. Marc Bekoff from the University of Colorado says the approach treats the significant alteration and potential suffering of animals too blithely. If someone said to me, Were going to turn you from a male to a female,' Id say, I dont want to be.' Fish, of course, cannot express their consent. Bekoff, who advocates for a humane approach called compassionate conservation, praises the effort to find a nonlethal means to control brook trout populations, but says that scientists all too often forsake the lives of individual organisms for the perceived needs of populations and ecosystems.

And therein lies the bigger problem, says Bekoff: There may be unforeseen consequences from using rapidly reproducing, modified non-native animals as a form of biological control. You could produce a nightmare very quickly, he says.

Take, for example, the famous case of the cane toad (Rhinella marina) brought from Central and South America to Australia in 1935 to help with native beetles that were ravaging the countrys sugarcane fields. Though hailed as an ecologically friendly alternative to pesticides, the toads became a disaster of their own, devouring the continents endemic lizards, snakes, and birds in massive numbers. Today, Australias population of cane toads is estimated at 200 million despite numerous efforts at eradication, all descended from an introduced population of just 100.

Schill dismisses the possibility of such a disaster at Vermejo and other creeks because the underlying ecological context is different. Unlike the toads, brook trout have already colonized the streams into which the new strain is being introduced. Moreover, those streams have barrierssome natural and others manmadethat prevent their movement out of the study area. And since brook trout and cutthroat trout are genetically incompatible and cant breed with one another, there is no risk of creating hybrids.

These colors and patterns are typical of a male brook trout. | Photo by Jeremy Miller

However, some biologists do worry about YY brook trout released into Idaho streams that contain native bull trout. Unlike Leandro Creeks cutthroat, the bull trout, Salvelinus confluentus, is closely related to brook trout and the two can produce hybrid offspring. This interbreeding has decimated bull trout populations across their range and is one of the reasons the species is listed as threatened.

Any kind of hybridization is a bad thing when it comes to bull trout, says Patrick DeHaan, a geneticist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service who has studied the hybridization of bull and brook trout. Id like to see more data and population modeling before saying that this is a safe method for eliminating brook trout from streams that still contain bull trout.

For his part, Schill, too, says hed like to see more funding for such studies. But time is short, he adds, and as science plays catch-up, brook trout continue their advance. Managers at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game see YY fish as a last resort to save the bull trout from extirpation in the state, Schill says. As soon as we can show this works, the Trojan brook trout are going in. You know why? Because without them, the bull trout have no chance.

Brook trout. | Photo by Charlie Summers

The descending sun casts a warm glow on Leandro Creek as the workday approaches its end. Miller and Field have caught, measured, tagged, and released hundreds of fish. By the time they reach the last pink flagging, another pattern has emerged: Leandro Creeks Trojan brookies appear to be thriving and the cutthroat, though fewer in number, are holding their own.

That night, we huddle around a roaring fire to thaw away the chill from hours wading through icy water. Stars flicker into view above Ash Mountain, and in the quiet, we can hear the static of the creek. Miller and Field sip beers and reflect on the waterways possible future. Given enough timeanywhere between five and 15 years, if predictions holdbrook trout reproduction could cease, and Rio Grande cutthroat populations could reclaim their stream, says Miller. Some waterways have been modified beyond any hope of repair. But in other places, we have the ability to fix our mistakes. We have an ethical responsibility to do what we can, where we can, to restore that natural history.

As I listen, Im reminded of an irony befitting our troubled ecological times: This effort to remove brook trout from the West is happening at the same time as the species is losing ground in huge areas of its native range in the East. Logging, mining and fracking have befouled miles of streams and lakes, and acid rain from coal-burning power plants and factories lowered the pH of mountain lakes at heart of the brook trouts range. Suburban and exurban sprawl has also done immense harm. One study found that brook trout rarely survive in watersheds in which more than 4 percent of the land is paved. Global warming has raised water temperatures in large portions of the fishs home range above 68 degrees Fahrenheit, a critical threshold beyond which it cannot survive. In Maryland, brook trout have already disappeared from 62 percent of their historical habitat, and if current rates of warming hold, the species could vanish entirely from the state by centurys end.

To compound the irony, invasive species may pose the gravest threat to brookies, says Schill. On a recent trip home to Pennsylvania, he clambered through thick rhododendron to reach a small brook trout stream that he had fished often in his youth. When he flicked out a cast and felt a tug, he expected to see the telltale orange belly and red and blue spots of a brookie. Instead came the silver flash of a West Coast transplant, Oncorhynchus mykiss, the rainbow trout. Rainbow trout, which were introduced in vast numbers to lakes and rivers in the Appalachians at the same time brook trout were being planted in the Rockies and Sierra, happen to be more heat tolerant and able to thrive in eastern waterways rapidly becoming uninhabitable to brook trout.

The technology employed in removing the brook trout from the West, says Schill, who now works as a fisheries consultant, may prove critical to the species survival in the East. There are people in the southern part of the range, in Tennessee and North Carolina, that are interested in creating a YY rainbow trout, he tells me. Im in discussions with them now.

Original post:
The Tale of the Trojan Trout - Sierra Club

These tips and tricks will make the identification process a breeze

As with most plants, animals, and other life forms, marijuana plants have distinct genders. They can have either male or female reproductive parts. In rare cases, you will find hermaphrodite plants. These are plants with male and female traits. In cannabis, it relates to plants that develop male and female flowers.

The sex of a crop does not always matter, but with marijuana grows, knowing the gender and the sex of your plant is vital to both growers and breeders. The type of weed is crucial to the quality and value of the end product. Seedless buds are worth more than lower-quality cannabis, for example.

Only the female marijuana crop is capable of producing potent buds. Additionally, it is useless to sell product from male plants, as they will not provide much of a high.

Unplanted, regular seeds will typically possess a 50/50 chance of producing a male or female plant. Most seed banks and companies offer genetically altered feminized seeds, which diminishes some of the risks of pollination if a male phenotype lacking resinous buds gets mixed in.

If a male plant sneaks into your cannabis garden, it can contaminate the healthy females and fertilize them. This is not good when youve dedicated so much time, money, and effort into the cultivating process. When a female plant is pollinated, it will start producing seeds rather than focusing its energy on growing robust flower.

By eliminating the issue early on and quickly removing a male from the garden, you can ensure that your result is healthy female plants.

Keep reading to discover how to differentiate between male and female plants.

Homegrown CannabisCo are the masters when it comes to seeds. Offering a massive variety of cannabis seeds that are well categorized, not only does this company create a resource for superb quality options including feminized seeds, it also provides extensive growing information for those looking for some support along their journey.

A female cannabis plant means you will have better nugs! If you intend to cultivate marijuana, the most likely goal is to produce usable, smokable, or sellable product in the end. Therefore, you only want the female plant.

This is why the production of feminized seeds has become such a big thing. Instead of leaving it to luck, you know the seeds you plant will produce female marijuana plants.

Regular seeds give you a 50% chance of either gender. If you plant ten seeds, for example, the laws of probability state that you may have five male plants. In this instance, you waste potentially half of your time and resources on male plants. This guide is for individuals who dont want to pay extra for feminized seeds. Also, differentiating between male and female plants is a useful skill.

Feminized seeds dont offer a 100% success guarantee, either. If you are growing cannabis outdoors, there is a chance that male pollen could float over and all but ruin your female crops.

sAs we said, this article is for those who grow cannabis plants from seeds they pulled from their nugs. You will also find this guide useful if you have random seeds that you know are not feminized.

The old saying goes that there is no stigma on a female clone for plants that look like marijuana, and this rings true even to this day.

When growing indoors, you cant go wrong with clones if you want to avoid the male weed plant altogether. Theyre a little more fragile than seedlings (mainly because they dont produce a strong taproot). However, for efficiency and ease-of-use, theyre typically your best bet. As long as theyre appropriately rooted, clones are pretty hard to screw up.

Also, they make sexing cannabis and knowing how to tell if your plant is male or female before flowering totally irrelevant. On the downside, clones are expensive. While theres typically a big difference in cost for recreational or medical patients (MMJ cardholders usually get a 50% price reduction or thereabouts), you can expect to pay around $20-$30 for a single plant.

With a clone, you get to take a lot of guesswork out of the equation. As long as your growing operation is stable, you theoretically should know the exact type of yields youll get. Moreover, for one individual (unless youre Snoop Dogg), a single plant will generally provide more than enough bud for a long, long time.

Were fully aware that the majority of weed lovers in the U.S. dont have access to a dispensary where they can buy a clone. Fortunately, many of the best grows in the world begin from seedlings. Please note that patience is essential when trying to identify male and female plants.

It takes years and years of experience. It is worth it because knowing what to look for in the pre-flower formation is often as important as merely removing males, in terms of overall yield quality.

Homegrown CannabisCo are the masters when it comes to seeds. Offering a massive variety of cannabis seeds that are well categorized, not only does this company create a resource for superb quality options including feminized seeds, it also provides extensive growing information for those looking for some support along their journey.

Marijuana has two primary growing stages; the vegetative stage and the flowering stage. The vegetative stage begins when the cannabis seed starts to sprout and grow. It lasts around six weeks. At that point, the plant displays signs of pre-flowering and will enter into the second (flowering) life stage.

Some individuals call the vegetative stage the childhood of the plant because the primary purpose of the crop during this time is to grow taller and stronger. It is not yet necessary for the crop to focus on yielding or flowering.

During the vegetative stage, it is incredibly challenging (if not impossible) to determine the gender of each plant. Therefore, a grower needs to wait until the signs of pre-flowering are visible, a sweet spot between the vegetative and flowering stages. Catching the males during this short period and separating them from the female crops could minimize many future problems.

Once the plant has gone through its childhood, it will then enter adulthood, otherwise known as the flowering stage. Now, the crop no longer focuses on getting any taller or thicker. Instead, its sole focus is to produce pistils and calyxes, otherwise known as buds. Male plants produce something called pollen sacs, which look like little peas and are easy to identify if you know what to look for.

After the first six weeks, you will begin noticing little pre-flowers near the growth tips. They will either appear slightly pointed at the ends or more rounded. With some strains, it is more challenging to see a difference right away. A female plant will have a calyx which is the slightly more pointed option. A male will have the aforementioned mini pollen sacs that are round or roughly oval.

If you cannot tell the difference yet, wait a few more days. If the green pre-flower grows a white hair, known as a pistil, it is female. Pistils are never green in color, so look for something light-colored and fuzzy.

Females typically take a bit longer to express their gender than the male cannabis plant does. As a result, be patient with your crops and regularly check them so you can manage any males in the bunch accordingly.

The male plants little green balls will continue to grow larger, filling up with more pollen until they eventually burst and leak pollen everywhere. You need to catch the male before this happens, as the spread of pollen will fertilize the females. At this point, their buds will stop developing.

In adverse situations (i.e., if the plants are stressed or hungry), portions of a crop can become hermaphroditic. This means they develop both male and female characteristics to self-pollinate and reproduce. It is not the end of the world for those that are growing for personal use because you can still produce buds. The downside is that you receive a far lower concentration of resin.

It is a potentially catastrophic situation for commercial growers, however, as hermaphrodites (or herms, as some people call them), are full of seeds and not sellable or desired. Just keep in mind that the male cannabis crop is not entirely useless; a fact we discuss in the next section.

Despite their reputation, a male crop is not as hopeless as many may think. Sure, these crops are not as potent as female crops in terms of their THC production, but they contain their fair share of cannabinoids. As some of the sugar leaves are slightly resinous, you can potentially enjoy a mild high too.

If you want an all-female crop, remove the male plants from the females once identified. Then, separate them to reduce the risk of contamination.

While some growers want to dump these plants, there are some non-bud related uses for the male cannabis plant. You can use the stems and water leaves for juicing and teas. It is also possible to process male plant parts into material for therapeutic creams and lotions.

If you do not feel inclined to produce anything with the male plants, the easiest option is to compost the remains. This reduces waste production, is more environmentally friendly, and potentially provides nutrition for your future crops.

Until now, we have not talked much about hermaphrodite cannabis plants in our little plant sex discussion. A hermaphrodite is a plant that has both male and female reproductive parts. An example is a female marijuana plant that can produce both flowering buds and male pollen sacs. Hermaphrodites are just as dangerous as male plants because they can pollinate an entire female crop.

What a lot of people dont realize, however, is that these unique plants only become hermaphroditic when exposed to unusual stress or damage. There are loads of different ways that an otherwise healthy female weed plant can grow stressed or damaged.

From left to right: Male, Female, and Hermie

Amsterdamgenetics.com

Excess heat, for example (i.e., prolonged temperatures above 88 degrees Fahrenheit) can undoubtedly cause a plant to become stressed. So can excess cold (i.e. prolonged temperatures below about 55 degrees) and light leaks that expose plants to excessive levels of light energy.

Physical damage can also cause a female plant to develop male characteristics. Examples include exposure to high winds and breaking a limb off. You can add intruders such as dogs, deer, and other animals to the list of dangers. Even excess amounts of rain can cause marijuana plants to become hermaphroditic.

Over-saturation is one of the leading causes of female and male crop failure among all levels of growers. It can lead to root disease. Make sure you only water your plants when necessary, and remove any stressed plants you find. Check the drainage of your growing medium, and that the plants container has ample holes in it.

There are plants that develop both flowering buds and male pollen sacs, and those that produce anthers, otherwise known as bananas.

While both of these varieties can release pollen and potentially fertilize an entire female crop, they differ in the way that they form and store the pollen. True hermaphrodites will grow actual pollen sacs (just like mature male marijuana plants). Antler-producing herms will produce what is essentially a pollen-producing stamen.

Lastly, its important to point out that some low-quality marijuana strains will herm out, no matter how much care and love you put into them. This is usually down to poor genetics, so dont get too upset with yourself if it happens.

Male pollination is no joke! A single pollen sac is incredibly potent, and can potentially pollinate dozens of females from hundreds of feet away. In other words, hermaphrodite plants wont affect portions of your garden; they will pollinate the whole darn thing.

Before we conclude, we have to include a quick story of a good friend of ours that recently carried out his first grow. He was a total rookie and came to us with all the basic first-timer questions:

Anyway, after spending almost a month setting up his operation, he was ready to get started. He chose a lovely spot for an indoor grow, a nice walk-in closet (probably about 8 ft x 4 ft) that was easily sealed off from all external light sources. He even went to the trouble of foiling out the inside walls and installing an external ventilation fan to keep the temperature and humidity at optimal levels.

The first few weeks went perfectly, and he kept the seedlings in their vegetative state for almost an entire month (he was growing four plants in total). Finally, after several painstaking weeks of relentless love and care, he invited us for the pleasurable chore of helping him trim the buds. He was disappointed that one plant didnt produce any flowers at all.

Oh no, we thought.

Sure enough, as soon as we got there, we saw that one of the plants in the closet a tall, skinny sativa variety had fully hermed out. It had pollinated the other three plants!

While he was pretty devastated, he chalked it up to a learning experience and vowed not to make the same mistake the next time around.

You can smoke buds that have seeds in them; its just that they are a royal pain in the ass to work with. Also, they dont have nearly the flavor or quality that sinsemilla (non-seeded) buds do.

Hopefully, this guide has helped you better understand the differences between male and female marijuana plants. A dream yield of healthy, robust female buds is the objective for nearly all growers. Learning the basics is the first step in becoming a master cannabis cultivator. One of these lessons involves spotting a pesky male marijuana plant from a mile away!

A male cannabis plant has very little value if your primary goal is producing potent nugs with high THC content. Male cannabis is, of course, crucial if youre doing something like cross-breeding to develop a new strain, but in general, its 100% females that you want.

Please remember, the consumption of marijuana is the sole responsibility of the user.

Homegrown CannabisCo are the masters when it comes to seeds. Offering a massive variety of cannabis seeds that are well categorized, not only does this company create a resource for superb quality options including feminized seeds, it also provides extensive growing information for those looking for some support along their journey.

Read the original:
Female vs Male Cannabis: How to Determine the Gender - WayofLeaf

There's more than 100 different types of autoimmune diseases and according to John Hopkins Medicine, an estimated 23.5 million Americans have one. "Any disease caused by a person's immunity attacking healthy cells and tissues is autoimmune disease. The immune system is our personal army whose job is to keep invaders out. If the army starts attacking its own, we end up suffering the consequences of this destruction," Dr. Suman Radhakrishna, Director of Infectious Disease with Dignity Healthy California Hospital tells us. Oftentimes autoimmune diseases can be difficult to diagnose because symptoms are subtle and easily overlooked or ignored, but knowing signs to look out for is key to finding a quicker diagnosis and getting treatment. Dr. Radhakrishna shares with us signals to pay attention to and who is at risk for an autoimmune disease. Read onand to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had COVID.

Dr. Radhakrishna says, "Our immune system is part of us, except for several abnormal/rogue cells which can be found in healthy asymptomatic individuals as well. Symptoms of autoimmune diseases can be very nonspecific and could occur due to many reasons, not all of them suggesting illness. Diagnosis is based on the presence of several of these abnormal immune cells in the setting of symptoms suggestive of autoimmune diseases. Sometimes the symptoms of autoimmune disease can be vague. Suffering with no end in sight is frustrating and lack of validation often results in the wrong impression that this is a mental health issue. Persons suffering from crippling disease and multiple organ damage feel trapped in their bodies. In addition to physical restrictions these diseases take a mental toll as well. Autoimmune diseases also increase risk of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, lung disease and cancer. Regular follow-up with your health care provider and with specialists when appropriate will prevent complications from developing."

Dr. Radhakrishna explains, "Some of the risk factors for autoimmune diseases include female sex (~ 80% in women), genetics (other family members more likely to have autoimmune diseases), previous diagnosis of autoimmune disease (lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and others can overload), certain infections (Epstein Barr virus, COVID, Group A Strep infection), obesity, smoking and exposure to toxins (air pollutants, organic solvents), medications (certain blood pressure medications, cholesterol medications, antidepressants, etc)."6254a4d1642c605c54bf1cab17d50f1e

"Yes, autoimmune disease can affect both the quality of health as well as overall health," Dr. Radhakrishna states. "Pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea and vomiting, and fever can cause a person to feel drained and unable to work and carry on with daily activities. Irreversible damage to organs such as joints, kidneys, and the brain can leave a person crippled and on dialysis."

Dr. Radhakrishna says, "Fatigue this is almost universal and very frustrating to patients and doctors. This symptom is very difficult to quantify and there are many causes of fatigue that are not attributable to autoimmune diseases. Lack of sleep, stress physical and mental are commonly experienced by all of us and usually improve after the stressor is removed and sleep deficit is corrected. However, if fatigue persists in the setting of other symptoms, it is best to discuss it with your healthcare provider."

"Joint pain and swelling, which is often felt in the hands and large joints, can indicate an autoimmune disease," Dr. Radhakrishna explains. "Stiffness in the morning which improves during the day is also common. Difficulty holding the toothbrush and brushing hair is uncommon. Please consult your healthcare provider. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent crippling arthritis and maintain quality of life."

Dr. Radhakrishna shares, "Rash on skin Can be limited to sun-exposed areas or the entire body. It can be flaky resembling psoriasis, intermittent or constant. If you notice a rash that recurs or persists, please discuss it with your healthcare provider."

According to Dr. Radhakrishna, "Abdominal pain and digestive complaints including diarrhea and constipation, nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite can be quite common due to inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Fluctuation in weight can be a consequence of this."

Dr. Radhakrishna tells us, "Intermittent fever and swollen glands are often experienced. These symptoms are again nonspecific and can be commonly seen. Please talk to your healthcare provider if these are recurring."

Heather Newgen

Continued here:
Sure Signs You Have an Autoimmune Disease Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

UW-Madison scientists studying the genetics of orangutans in zoos were stumped. The lineages they found didnt match those made public when the orangutan genome was sequenced in 2011.

When they pulled a photo for one animal from the 2011 research, supposedly a female, it had cheek pads, a distinctly male trait. In further digging, they learned a label for one orangutan was really for a pig. Another orangutan, marked as Doris from Dallas Zoo, was actually Sibu from Zoo Atlanta.

Things just didnt add up, said Graham Banes, who now directs the Madison-based Orangutan Conservation Genetics Project. Our data just could not reconcile with what had already been published.

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At the same time, the related journal Nature Scientific Data included a paper by Banes and his colleagues detailing their finding that nine of 10 samples in the 2011 research were inadvertently switched.

I was aghast, said Michael Sweet, who researches coral genomes at the University of Derby in England and worries that recent examples of scientific fraud have already increased public skepticism about topics such as climate change. The general public is going to start mistrusting science.

Marc Tollis, whose research at Northern Arizona University involves bioinformatics and genomics, called the orangutan genome mishap a nightmare scenario for almost all scientists.

The revelation about the orangutan research doesnt only raise questions about scientific error, public trust and the validity of subsequent studies based on the genome work. Banes said it has implications for the management of orangutans in zoos, as there is now proof that at least several orangutans in American zoos are from a new third species announced only in 2017. Should they be prevented from breeding with other species, which he argues can increase the risk of disease and birth defects?

This is a really massive problem for zoos, Banes said. If zoos allow different species of the animals to mate freely, at that point, its not a conservation breeding program, he said. Its an experiment.

Rob Vernon, spokesperson for the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums, said the group would review the research and consult with experts for advice. Ronda Schwetz, leader of the associations Orangutan Saving Animals from Extinction program and director of Vilas Zoo in Madison where orangutan Chelsea had a baby in June did not respond to requests for comment.

Devin Locke, lead author of the 2011 genome paper and of the recent correction, could not be reached for comment. Formerly with Washington University Genome Center in St. Louis, which headed up the genome-sequencing project, Locke is now with the Massachusetts-based cancer research company Foundation Medicine, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Sweet, one of numerous scientists who have raised concerns about the new report on social media, is part of a group that published standards on sequencing coral genomes to help prevent such mistakes. He said misconduct recently identified in investigations of a University of Delaware coral scientist and a spider behavior ecologist at McMaster University in Canada have already damaged scientific credibility.

The whole mess (about the orangutan genome) underlines the need for careful curation of genomic data, including checking apparently solid identification in the genomic databases, said Michael Cobb, a zoologist at the University of Manchester in England.

Different species

It wasnt until the 1980s, decades after orangutans were first captured from the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia for placement in zoos, that two distinct species were identified: Bornean orangutans and Sumatran orangutans.

Interbreeding was discouraged and zoos separated the populations, Banes said.

Graham Banes heads up theOrangutan Conservation Genetics Project, based in Madison, and was part of a research team that discovered orangutan genome mix-ups.

The genome published in 2011 was based on a Sumatran female. Ten other orangutans five identified as Sumatran and five as Bornean were also sequenced in less detail, serving as reference samples of the diversity of orangutan genetics.

The orangutan was the third nonhuman primate genome to be sequenced, after the chimp and the rhesus macaque. The analysis showed humans and orangutans share about 97% of their DNA, compared with 99% between humans and chimps.

Banes, who left UW-Madisons Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in May but still conducts primatology research in Madison, focuses on the effects of inbreeding, or mating between closely related groups, and outbreeding, or mating between divergent groups.

In 2016, his research showed a non-native subspecies of Bornean orangutan, released into Tanjung Puting National Park on Borneo in Indonesia, bred with apes in the park, creating a cocktail hybrid species. One of two non-native females rescued from the pet trade, Siswoyo, had fewer surviving offspring than any other female in the park.

Banes said preliminary data suggest outbreeding may be connected to birth defects he saw among intermixed orangutans at zoos in China and chronic respiratory disease found in some captive orangutans.

It appears theyre ill-adapted to each others novel pathogens, he said.

Science sleuths

In 2018, Banes UW-Madison research team was testing orangutans in U.S. zoos to determine the extent of interbreeding. Graduate student Alyssa Karklus, now a veterinarian with the Wisconsin Humane Society, noticed that the genetics of some animals didnt line up with the reference genomes from 2011.

A female orangutan reintroduced to the wild is pictured carrying her wild-born offspring. UW-Madison researchers found a mix-up in a genome-sequencing research project that could have implications for orangutan-breeding programs at zoos.

Banes and Karklus, along with post-graduate researcher Emily Fountain, became sleuths, sifting through volumes of data and eventually finding that even the sex reported for five animals in the 2011 paper was wrong. Three researchers from Washington University, who participated in the initial genome work, assisted the UW-Madison group and are co-authors of the paper about the mix-ups.

Its not clear who made the mistakes or how, Banes said. The errors likely occurred at several stages, from when samples were collected from animals and labeled in vials to when sequencing data was linked to individuals, he said.

It was probably multiple people, he said. It was a series of unfortunate events.

Banes said hes not out to vilify the genome researchers and is glad they agreed to do the correction. He said his goal is to improve the integrity of science.

Theres no shame in making mistakes. What is critically important is that we correct them, he said. I personally mixed up three samples on Wednesday last week, but I caught it.

Tapanuli orangutans

Banes said one of the switches in the genome samples has implications for managing Tapanuli orangutans the newly discovered third species, from part of Sumatra.

One of the five animals identified as Sumatran in the 2011 paper turned out to be Tapanuli, which scientists wouldnt have been expected to know at the time. But it wasnt Baldy, a long-deceased male animal from the Sacramento Zoo that had only two offspring and no second-generation offspring, as identified by the genome researchers, Banes said. The Tapanuli was Bubbles, from the San Diego Zoo, a female that had eight descendants, some of which are still alive and in zoos, he said.

That led Banes and his colleagues to discover additional Tapanulis in zoos in the U.S. and elsewhere, with studies underway in Europe. He plans to publish a report soon on the extent of Tapanulis found, which he said raises questions for the future of orangutans in zoos.

What are the zoos going to do if 50% of their population now has to be taken out of the breeding program? he asked.

Visitors enter Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Deynah Thao, 7, gets a close look at a grizzly bear during a trip to Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening of the zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors to Henry Vilas Zoo follow one way walking paths on the first day of the reopening of the zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors stop to see the grizzly bears on the first day of the reopening of Henry Vilas Zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors follow the paw prints as they check out animal exhibits on the first day of the reopening of Henry Vilas Zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Visitors enter Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

The first day of the reopening of Henry Vilas Zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Employee Ryan Brockner, right, shows off an umbrella cockatoo named Reggie to visitors Samia Sanders, 4, front, Nazilah Lites, 4, and Miyauna Sanders, 10, on the first day of the reopening of Henry Vilas Zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Nicole Josi Lema, with her daughters Arianna, 7, and Akemi, 5, right, are greeted by Courtney Cordova, educational specialist, as she explains the rules before entering Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Employee Debbie Scheffel cleans picnic tables after they are used by guests on the first day of the reopening of Henry Vilas Zoo since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Dan Tortorice, center, sits with his grandchildren, Aria Oettiker, 9, left, and her brother, Anthony, 6, as they eat ice cream during a visit to Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

Signs reminding visitors to social distance are seen at Henry Vilas Zoo on the first day of the reopening since it closed due to COVID-19 in Madison, Wis., Thursday, June 18, 2020. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL

The whole (genome) mess underlines the need for careful curation of genomic data, including checking apparently solid identification in the genomic databases.

Michael Cobb, University of Manchester zoologist

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UW researchers discover orangutan genome mix-ups that could affect zoo animals - Madison.com

Mike Szydlowski| Columbia Daily Tribune

The Earth is warming. There is no doubt about that.

With that warming comes melting glaciers, sea level increases, stronger storms and now, lots of female sea turtles!

What?Thats right:another strange consequence of climate change is that the male/female ratio of some animals is becoming skewed at an alarming rate.Buthow does this happen?

In most animals, the gender of the animal is determined by genetics passed down by parents. However, in some fish and reptiles, the temperature during a very specific time duringincubationdetermines the gender.Sea turtles are just one species where gender is controlled by temperature.

In sea turtles, that very specific time of sex determination is during the middle third of the incubation period. With the sea turtle incubation period being about 60 days, the temperature of the egg during days 20-40 determines the gender of the turtle hatchling.

Scientists say if the egg is below about 82 degrees Fahrenheit during days 20-40, the turtle will hatch as a male. If it is above about 88 degrees, it will come out female. In between those temperatures, the gender could go either way.

Scientists at a Florida turtle sanctuary reported they have seen almost no male sea turtlehatchlings in the last four years. Those four years have also been the hottest four years on record on the beaches where the sea turtles lay their eggs.

Scientists studying sea turtles in Australia have found the very same circumstance. In that case, 99% of all turtle hatchlings were female. The changing climate has caused the sandy nests to constantly stay above the critical 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

Scientists have found it isn't just turtles being affected by climate change. A recent study found some species of bearded dragons are also shifting to disproportionally female populations due to the rising temperatures.Other studies have found the same thing happening to some species of fish.

Obviously, a population of sea turtles that is 99% female is not a great thing for the future. There is no doubt this is troubling for populations of sea turtles that are already struggling from habitat loss. There is no good news in this scenario, but there are some other circumstances that offer hope.

First, in the animal world, males can fertilize quite a few females. While bad, the mostly-female scenario we have now is better than a mostly-male scenario. The population would still suffer, but maybe not quite as much as one would think.

Second, not all populations of sea turtles are experiencing this phenomenon. Some populations are in regions that are warming, but not as drastically as in other places. This is not good news for the Florida or Australia turtle populations, but could mean other populations remain more stable.

Third, it is possible over time that sea turtles will migrate to cooler waters farther north. This would solve that problem.However, the adult turtles do not know there is a problem, so there really is no reason for them to migrate.

Some have suggested humans relocate some turtle populations farther north. While this could help, there are countless examples of negative things that occur when you move a species into a new ecosystem to solve a problem.That solution often causes other problems.

While this is sad for the sea turtles future, does it really impact humans? It does! What humans are just now starting to realize(scientists have always known this) is that everything in the plant and animal world is connected. Humans are part of that world, and every change ends up impacting us in some way.

Lets hope for some cooler weather for our nesting sea turtle eggs.

Mike Szydlowski is a science teacher and zoo facilitator at Jefferson STEAM School.

TIME FOR A POP QUIZ

1.What is temperature-dependent sex determination?

2.What types of animals have genders that are determined by the temperature?

3.Why is it unlikely that female turtles will travel north to lay eggs in cooler areas?

4. While still bad, why is a mostly-female population better than a mostly-male population?

5.What is one strategy that humans could try to help this problem?

LAST WEEKS POP QUIZ ANSWERS

1.What is a hellstrip?

A hellstrip is a nickname for the strip of grass between the street and the sidewalk. It was given this name because of how much abuse this area receives.

2.What are the benefits to planting trees in your yard?

Trees provide habitat for our important species, cool your yard and house in the summer, and increase the value of your home.They also make your home look much better.

3.While trees feed caterpillars, what needs to be done to help them to turn into butterflies and moths?

Most caterpillars burrow into soil to pupate and turn into butterflies and moths. Our lawns are not easy to burrow into. Turning the areas below trees into native areas will help them complete their lifecycle.

4.Why is the soil below our lawns often difficult to dig into?

Lawns have very shallow roots (which is why they dry out so quickly). The shallow roots do not break up the soil the way native plants would.

5.Why would people want to save insects? Dont we try to get rid of them?

Insects support all life on Earth.If insects continue to disappear, so will humans. Most insects do not cause any issues for humans.

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Why a warming Earth affects the gender ratio of sea turtles - Columbia Daily Tribune

Fernanda, the only known living Fernandina giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or fantastic giant tortoise), now lives at the Galpagos National Parks Giant Tortoise Breeding Center on Santa Cruz Island. Credit: The Galpagos Conservancy

Stephen Gaughran, a geneticist at Princeton University, has verified that Fernanda is related to a tortoise that was taken from Fernandina Island more than a century ago and that both of them are genetically distinct from all other Galpagos tortoises.

A tortoise from a Galpagos species that was long thought to be extinct has been discovered alive. The tortoise is the first of her kind to be discovered in more than a century and has been given the name Fernanda after her home on Fernandina Island.

A single specimen of the Fernandina Island Galpagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or fantastic giant tortoise) was discovered in 1906. The chance to ascertain if the species is still alive came with the discovery of a female tortoise on Fernandina Island in 2019.

Stephen Gaughran from Princeton University demonstrated that the two known Fernandina tortoises are members of the same species and genetically distinct from all other members by sequencing the genomes of both the living individual and the museum specimen and comparing them to the other 13 species of Galpagos giant tortoises. He co-authored a recent paper in the journal Communications Biology that established the survival of her species.

For many years it was thought that the original specimen collected in 1906 had been transplanted to the island, as it was the only one of its kind, said Peter Grant, Princetons Class of 1877 Professor of Zoology, Emeritus and an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology who has spent more than 40 years studying evolution in the Galpagos islands. It now seems to be one of a very few that were alive a century ago.

Fernanda, named after her Fernandina Island home, is the first of her species identified in more than a century. Princeton geneticist Stephen Gaughran successfully extracted DNA from a specimen collected from the same island more than a century ago and confirmed that Fernanda and the museum specimen are members of the same species and genetically distinct from all other Galpagos tortoises. Credit: The Galpagos Conservancy

Many ecologists questioned if Fernanda was really a native phantasticus tortoise when she was first found. She lacked the male historical specimens notable saddleback flare, but experts theorized that she may have had deformed features due to her clearly stunted development. Even though they cant swim, tortoises can be transported from one Galpagos island to another during hurricanes and other strong storms because they can float. The tortoises have also been transported across islands by seafarers, according to historical records.

Like many people, my initial suspicion was that this was not a native tortoise of Fernandina Island, said Gaughran, a postdoctoral research fellow in ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton.

To determine Fernandas species definitively, Gaughran sequenced her complete genome and compared it to the genome he was able to recover from the specimen collected in 1906. He also compared those two genomes to samples from the other 13 species of Galpagos tortoises three individuals from each of the 12 living species, and one individual of the extinct C. abingdonii.

We saw honestly, to my surprise that Fernanda was very similar to the one that they found on that island more than 100 years ago, and both of those were very different from all of the other islands tortoises, said Gaughran, who conducted the analyses after arriving at the University in February 2021.

In 2019, he was in the lab of Adalgisa Caccone at Yale University, the senior author of the paper. The finding of one alive specimen gives hope and also opens up new questions, as many mysteries still remain, said Caccone. Are there more tortoises on Fernandina that can be brought back into captivity to start a breeding program? How did tortoises colonize Fernandina, and what is their evolutionary relationship to the other giant Galpagos tortoises? This also shows the importance of using museum collections to understand the past.

Part of my postdoc is developing a tool that analyzes DNA from ancient museum specimens so we can compare them to modern samples, Gaughran said.

His tool is flexible enough to work on almost any ancient specimen. The software doesnt care if its a seal or a tortoise or human or Neanderthal, he said. Genetics is genetics, for the most part. Its in the interpretation where it matters what kind of creature the DNA comes from.

The Fernandina Island Galpagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis phantasticus, or fantastic giant tortoise) was known only from this single specimen, collected in 1906, before Fernanda was found in 2019. Credit: California Academy of Sciences

At Princeton, Gaughran works with Andrea Graham and Bridgett vonHoldt to unravel the mysteries of pinniped (seal and walrus) evolution.

Stephen solves conservation mysteries, in species ranging from tortoises to pinnipeds, with the deft and careful application of genetic and bioinformatic tools, said Graham, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

He has such a curiosity for discovering the messages and codes tucked away in ancient remains, said vonHoldt, an associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. Stephen has been collecting specimens from several hundred years old to a few thousand, and these really hold the keys for understanding the history of when and how genomes changed over time. It is not surprising to me that he also led the effort to unravel the mystery of Fernanda, the fantastic ghost tortoise that has been rediscovered through molecular research. What a cool discovery!

Since 1906, scant but compelling evidence has hinted that giant tortoises might still live on Fernandina Island, an active volcano on the western edge of the Galpagos Archipelago that is reputed to be the largest pristine island on Earth.

A single specimen of C. phantasticus the fantastic giant tortoise was collected by explorer Rollo Beck during a 1906 expedition. The fantastic nature refers to the extraordinary shape of the males shells, which have extreme flaring along the outer edge and conspicuous saddlebacking at the front. Saddlebacking is unique to Galpagos tortoises, and the phantasticus tortoise shows it more prominently than the other species.

Since its 1906 discovery, the survival of the Fernandina tortoise has remained an open question for biologists. In 1964, 18 scats attributable to tortoises were reported on the western slopes of the island. Scats and a possible visual observation from an aircraft were reported during the early 2000s, and another possible tortoise scat was seen in 2014.

The island has remained largely unexplored, due to extensive lava fields blocking access to the islands interior.

Fernandina is the highest of the Galpagos islands, geologically young, and is mainly a huge pile of jagged blocks of brown lava; Rosemary and I once climbed to the top, said Grant, referring to his wife and research partner Rosemary Grant, an emeritus senior research biologist at Princeton. At lower elevations, the vegetation occurs in island-like clumps in a sea of recently congealed lava. Fernanda was found in one of these, and there is evidence that a few relatives may exist in others.

Scientists estimate that Fernanda is well over 50 years old, but she is small, possibly because the limited vegetation stunted her growth. Encouragingly, recent tracks and scat of at least 2 or 3 other tortoises were found during other recent expeditions on the island.

Two or three million years ago, a storm carried one or more giant tortoises from the South American mainland westwards. Because they dont swim, the tortoises bred only with others on their own islands, resulting in rapid evolution following the pattern of the better-known Galpagos finches. Today, there are 14 different species of giant Galpagos tortoises, all descended from a single ancestor.

(Some scientists debate whether these should be considered species or subspecies, but the Princeton-Yale team concluded that they are different enough, with thousands of distinctive genetic markers, to be separate species.)

Diversification of Galpagos tortoises reveals a continuum of shell shapes, with the easternmost islands showing rounder, domed shells, and the westernmost island Fernandina showing the most dramatic saddlebacking. The domed tortoises live in more humid, higher elevation ecosystems, while their saddlebacked cousins inhabit drier, lower elevation environments. All 14 are listed on the IUCN Red List as either vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered, or extinct.

The tortoise populations were decimated by European seafarers who hunted them for food, having discovered that they could keep tortoises alive on their ships with minimal effort, as the reptiles could survive with little food or water. They were a great source of fresh meat for the sailors, but it meant that many of the species were severely overhunted, said Gaughran. And because they have such a long generation time, the populations have a hard time recovering quickly.

The genetic work provides intriguing hints of a mixing of genes with members of another population, said Grant. It would be fascinating if confirmed by future detective work on the genome. Another thought-provoking finding is the nearest relatives are not on the nearest very large island (Isabela) but on another (Espaola) far away on the other side of Isabela. The question of how the ancestors reached Fernandina is left hanging.

Fernanda is now at the Galpagos National Park Tortoise Center, a rescue and breeding facility, where experts are seeing what they can do to keep her species alive.

The discovery informs us about rare species that may persist in isolated places for a long time, said Grant. This information is important for conservation. It spurs biologists to search harder for the last few individuals of a population to bring them back from the brink of extinction.

Reference: The Galapagos giant tortoise Chelonoidis phantasticus is not extinct by Evelyn L. Jensen, Stephen J. Gaughran, Nicole A. Fusco, Nikos Poulakakis, Washington Tapia, Christian Sevilla, Jeffreys Mlaga, Carol Mariani, James P. Gibbs and Adalgisa Caccone, 9 June 2022, Communications Biology.DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03483-w

The study was funded by the Galpagos National Park Directorate, the Galpagos Conservancy, the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, Re:Wild, Island Conservation, the Ecuadorian Ministry of the Environment, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Academy of Sciences, and the Yale Center for Research Computing.

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The Fantastic Giant Tortoise Believed To Be Extinct Has Been Found Alive - SciTechDaily

Nearly a quarter of men and one-fifth of women in India have hypertension that increases the risk of cardiovascular, kidney disease and premature death, according to NFHS 5 data .

In women, along with the factors like high salt and fat intake, sedentary lifestyle, genetics, chronic conditions such as kidney disease, diabetes, high cholesterol level and obesity, aging and hormonal imbalance, prolonged use of oral contraceptive pills, pregnancy and menopause all play an active role in the manifestation of the condition. Besides, they experience stress from their jobs as over the years their position in the family has gradually changed from bread-maker to breadwinner.

In women, the types of hypertension that may manifest before or during pregnancy are chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension, pre-eclampsia or eclampsia. The older a woman gets, she is more likely to develop hypertension and the associated cardiovascular disease. `

It is to be noted that women with chronic hypertension are at risk of experiencing serious complications during pregnancy. There is always a chance that 510% of pregnancies will become complicated by hypertension, and rates are likely to rise if the patient is obese. Women who have chronic hypertension can also get preeclampsia in the second or third trimester of pregnancy. However, hypertension in pregnancy does not occur exclusively and it is imperative to diagnose pre-existing cases, which either precedes pregnancy or develop before 20 weeks of gestation and generally lingers beyond 42 days, i.e.; after the postpartum period.

Occasionally, chronic hypertension may be superimposed by preeclampsia. Such high blood pressure can be dangerous for both the child and mother. In rare cases, symptoms may not start until after delivery.

Gestational hypertension can develop into preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disorder that can occur during pregnancy stressing the heart and other organs, and can cause serious complications like proteinuria, derailing the blood supply to the placenta, impairing liver and kidney function and fluid build-up in the lungs. Whilst, Eclampsia is a severe complication of Preeclampsia- a rare but serious condition where high blood pressure results in seizures during pregnancy.

Therefore, careful monitoring of blood pressure in a pregnant woman by a medical practitioner before, during and after pregnancy is essential as it tends to exist silently in the body.

Taking the stalk of the situation, the government launched the Newborn Action Plan (INAP) in June 2014 which aspires to bring neonatal mortality to a single digit by 2030 by providing continuum care for neonatal survival starting from preconception and continuing up to postpartum care. Pre-conceptional care requires blood pressure monitoring for every woman who is planning to get pregnant by a medical practitioner and also charting the blood pressure during and after pregnancy. Even the National health programmes work for adolescent health, safe motherhood and new born care.

In India, 25% of women who exhibit the tendency of mild high blood pressure during pregnancy continue to be hypertensive after childbirth and visiting the hospital twice or thrice during pregnancy may not be enough.

In addition, when a woman reaches the peri-menopausal and menopausal stage, she becomes prone to hypertension due to hormonal changes. Hence, it is essential to monitor blood pressure along with her other medical vitals, and if the readings are continually high, she should be put on medication.

To prevent pre-hypertension from progressing to full-blown hypertension, one should make lifestyle adjustments such as increasing physical activity, eating a low-fat, low-sodium diet, abstaining from smoking and drinking, and maintaining ideal body weight.

Since it has been observed that the majority of women are not socially or financially able to pay for the prescription or bring someone with them to the hospital, therapy should start with one pill and be adjusted as needed.

Sometimes, treatment compliance remains challenging for a woman as she is a working professional and visiting the nearest primary healthcare centre for a refill of her blood pressure medication becomes a humongous task for her and irregular access to anti-hypertensive medicines often leads to non-adherence to treatment and a fall-out.

In this case, The Ministry of Health and Family Welfares (MoHFW), Government of India (GoI) initiative at the start of the Covid in March 2020, proved to be fruitful. It wrote to all states and Union Territories (UTs) recommending making anti-hypertension drugs available for free and in sufficient quantities at all Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (ABHWCs), at sub-centre and Primary Health Centres (PHCs). All known diagnosed patients with hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mental health to receive a regular supply of medicines for up to 90 days through ASHAs or health sub-centres on prescription. This extended refill prescription approach for chronic diseases proved to be an innovative and sure-shot step towards ensuring the last-mile delivery of drugs and the continuation of such module can help go long way in tackling hypertension in women. Also, ASHAs and other health sub-centers should regularly check the blood pressure of women as it can help in the monitoring of female hypertension.

Most importantly, when a woman is told she has high blood pressure, its crucial that she follows through with the recommended treatment, medications, and check ups. It is essential to provide the patient with counselling and make clear to her the significance of adhering to her medication throughout her life, citing the risks of a stroke, damaged kidneys, damaged heart, and vision impairment.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

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Hypertension in women and the way forward - Times of India

Background reading:Transcript:

[0:00:04.3] Welcome to On the Issues with Michele Goodwin at Ms. Magazine. You know, were a show that reports, rebels, and tells it just like it is.

On this show, we center your concerns about rebuilding our nation and advancing the promise of equality. Join me as we tackle the most compelling issues of our times because on our show history matters. We examine the past, as we think about the future. That couldnt be more relevant for this episode, and as we think about where we are in this country.

Out of the studio, were joined with special guest at the National Womens History Museum for an incredibly important episode that addresses reproductive health rights and justice from a historical point of view, but as we think about matters of history, as we go forward for our future podcasts, thank you for sticking in with us, as we had a little bit of a break over the summer.

Theres so much for us to think about in the coming election term, the 2022 midterms, so much to think about in light of the hearings on the storming and insurrection against the capital and our government, so much to think about in the wake of the post Dobbs era in the United States where weve seen a 10-year-old girl fleeing the state of Ohio to get to Indiana in order to terminate a pregnancy after rape. As weve seen in the state of Wisconsin with a woman who bled for days, more than 10 days, with an incomplete miscarriage going near death before doctors could provide her the standard medical treatment. A woman in Louisiana whos forced to carry a pregnancy with a fetus developing without a skull. A girl in Florida being denied the opportunity to terminate her pregnancy by a judge, who says that shes too immature to decide to have an abortion but somehow mature enough to carry a pregnancy for nine months risking her health and safety and then becoming a mother before even graduating from high school.

Theres so much more in terms of this landscape thats now capturing our country, and so it is important that we think about history, its important that we think about our future, and its important for us to think about what comes next, what can we do to create the kind of future that we want for our country.

I couldnt be more pleased than to be joined by very special guests for this out-of-studio special broadcast. Im joined by Professor Mary Ziegler. You know her as one of the worlds leading historians of the US abortion debate. Shes the author of Abortion and the Law in America: A Legal History, and her new book couldnt be more timely, Dollars for Life: The Antiabortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment.

Im also joined by Sarah Dubow, a professor of history at Williams College and author of the award-winning book, Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America.

Also, with us today, is Deborah White. Professor White is the Board of Governors Professor of History and Professor of Women and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. Shes also the author of Arnt I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South.

Thank you for joining us for this special episode. Sit back and take a good listen.

[0:03:41.6] Michele Goodwin:

I want to start first by engaging with you, Professor Deborah White, and I hope its okay that we can all be on first names for todays show.

Deborah, during your decades of work, you have studied the intersections of race, and sex, and gender. Your work has looked at the very origin story of Black women and their kidnap, sex trafficking, labor trafficking, and in fact, your book, Arnt I a Woman? Female Slaves in the Plantation South, such a powerful and important book with helping to level set.

I want to start first with a question that seems to have been overlooked in history and that is how Black women navigated the sexual harms, assaults, and rapes that they encountered when being kidnapped and brought to this new world, and what does that mean in terms of thinking about conversations of reproductive autonomy.

[0:04:53.2] Deborah White:

Thats a big one.

[0:04:54.7] Michele Goodwin:

It certainly is. Its a lot, and you know, youre one of the best people that I could find to start us off and answer that question.

[0:05:04.3] Deborah White:

Yeah. So, I know this is about abortion rights, but it really is about bodily autonomy and who controls whose wombs. From the very beginning, African American women were set apart from White women, in this nation, and so that Black women, basically, at the very beginning, in 1662, there is a law that it says that the child follows the condition of the mother, and in as much as the issues of slavery and race had not really been worked out and they were being worked out, you could actually see the progression of how African American women and the control of African American womens wombs really was that that was going to be how or whether or not slavery was even going to survive.

All right, so the very beginning of this nations history, the British, in particular, they decided that the child would follow the condition of the mother, and that meant that, I mean, you know, in Britain, the child followed, you know, based on inheritance rules

[0:06:45.9] Michele Goodwin:

The status of the father.

[0:06:47.0] Deborah White:

The status of the father, and so what they were saying was that it was really if the woman was a slave

[0:06:56.6] Michele Goodwin:

Her children would be slaves.

[0:06:57.8] Deborah White:

Then her child would be a slave, and if the woman was free, then the child would be free, so if you were setting up a system of slavery, based on color, you want to make sure that the babies that Black women have are Black or Brown, but they are of color, and that the children that White women have, that they are White, so if you look at the very founding laws of this country, you find that, you know, there was an attempt to control African American and White womens reproduction.

[0:07:40.4] Michele Goodwin:

So, I want to build upon that because what youre opening the door to are other matters, as well. So, very recently, just a couple years ago, reported in The New York Times and other media, was a study done by 23andMe along with myriad other researchers to study the DNA of Black people, and what they found were incredibly high links to White male genetics, part of that historic story of slavery, and it seems to me that that connects with what it is that you are saying because if children will inherit the status of their mothers, then that means that Black women are increasingly vulnerable to what would be these kind of perverse incentives. If you want more enslaved people on your plantation, then you force this Black woman to reproduce, and it also then means that if youre White, you dont have to worry about that child claiming some inheritance from your estate or your property because that child is the status of that woman. In fact, Black women were considered property, that property that birthed it.

[0:09:00.9] Deborah White:

Yeah. Of course, I mean, that was the thought, and that was the desire, but it never worked out that way. Obviously, White women had children with Black men, and so some of their children were Brown and some Brown children, particularly some women, were the children of White mothers, but I mean, in theory, if you could control the race or the color of the children that were born, then you could essentially control how slavery would proceed, but it was always very, very, very messy, so in some of the very early laws of this nation, you had White women being penalized for having children that were Brown.

[0:10:02.0] Michele Goodwin:

Well, it is messy, isnt it?

[0:10:03.7] Deborah White:

And they were fined, and sometimes, they were put in jail, and there were all kinds of laws.

I think the bottom line really is that children carry, in some peoples ideas, in some peoples ideology, in fact, children carry the nation, and the way of the nation is determined by the children that come out of womens wombs, and therefore, its been very important to control who marries who, and its been very important to control who has sex.

I mean, so the issues of sexual integrity and the issues of reproduction are all tied up together, and with issues of nationalism.

[0:11:02.3] Michele Goodwin:

Sure. Well, you know, it also strikes me, too, by what youre saying, is the hypodescent rules, you know, otherwise, known as the one drop rule, which, otherwise, colors, no pun intended, exactly what it is that youre saying here.

[0:11:19.8] Deborah White:

Yes. Yeah.

[0:11:21.3] Michele Goodwin:

And then the anti-miscegenation rules, as well, in terms of who can marry whom, I mean, which existed and persisted long beyond slaverys abolition.

[0:11:31.9] Deborah White:

_____ [0:11:32.1].

[0:11:32.3] Michele Goodwin:

Long, deeply beyond Jim Crowe. I mean, 1967 is when the Supreme Court finally strikes down the anti-miscegenation laws.

[0:11:41.0] Deborah White:

Yeah.

[0:11:41.8] Michele Goodwin:

Yeah, and whats interesting about that, and then were going to come back to this, Im going to turn to Sarah for a moment here, but what strikes me is as being very interesting about 1967 with the Supreme Court finally striking down anti-miscegenation laws is that Virginia came kind of, you know, with full force defending its laws,

wanting to persist into the late 1960s and 70s with anti-miscegenation on the books. Its fascinating, and to your point, one of the ways in which they defend the law is to say that theyre protecting children, theyre protecting future offspring, so fascinating.

Well, Sarah, Im so happy that youre joining us for this very important dialogue and conversation. Interestingly, you too have roots at Rutgers, as well, which is really terrific. Rutgers has really just been showing such mightiness across these spaces. Some of our viewers and listeners will know that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before she was a justice, Ginsburg taught at Rutgers, and so what a fascinating history and present at Rutgers.

So, youve taught at a number of places, and your work examines the intersections of gender, law, and politics in the 20th century, and your book, Ourselves Unborn: A History of the Fetus in Modern America, just an incredible page turner, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is considering learning more, wanting to know more in this space.

So, how do we build upon this history that Deborah just started us off with? I know with your work it covers the space before Roe v. Wade. What is the leadup? How do we further contextualize exactly what the concerns were with regard to reproductive health rights justice, if you can, before Roe?

[0:13:58.0] Sarah Dubow:

Thanks. Im really glad that we began this conversation with Deborahs longer history and context because I think its really impossible to sort of separate the story of the history of reproductive politics, reproductive justice, abortion politics from the history of slavery, of race, of controlling womens bodies, controlling Black womens bodies in particular ways, and that history is really completely absent from the Dobbs decisions majority opinion, and I know that were not just here to talk about Dobbs, but I did want to sort of start

[0:14:33.7] Michele Goodwin:

Oh, please start. I mean, because that would talk about a hot mess, you know, opportunistic readings of history, you know, hopscotch around history. I mean, it was an unfortunate just in terms of the quality of the research and the quality of analysis was really far shortened in that opinion.

[0:14:57.8] Sarah Dubow:

Yeah, and I think, at the same time, it was so committed to framing itself as a historical analysis, so I think that the decision reallyI mean, I think, it cites the word history sort of 67 times, at least, and you know the conclusion is sort of that he says, you know, theres this unbroken tradition of prohibiting abortion on pain of criminal punishment from the earliest days of common law through 1973.

[0:15:21.9] Michele Goodwin:

Which is an error.

[0:15:23.9] Sarah Dubow:

Its an error.

[0:15:24.3] Michele Goodwin:

Its false.

[0:15:25.1] Sarah Dubow:

Its an error.

[0:15:27.2] Michele Goodwin:

Thats a polite way of saying it, right, Sarah, it is an error.

[0:15:30.7] Sarah Dubow:

Its an error. Its a contradistinction to sort of the consensus view of most historians, and so I thought it might be helpful to just sort of lay out what that consensus really is.

[0:15:41.7] Michele Goodwin:

I think thats a great place to begin, and as you do, I think its worth noting that to the extent that Justice Alito frames himself as an originalist and textualist, and says, well, abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution, its worth noting that pregnancy isnt mentioned in the Constitution, labor and delivery arent mentioned in the Constitution, that there are things that are just so normalized in terms of human existence that werent mentioned in the Constitution, you know, suggesting that labor, pregnancy, or abortion should be mentioned in the Constitution as if saying male erection should be listed in the Constitution, and Im not being sloppy or humorous with that, but its just that, you know, why exactly this sort of examination of the womans body in the Constitution and not a mans body in a document that was written by and for men, largely.

[0:16:40.5] Sarah Dubow:

Yeah, and I think, I mean, the narrowness of it is a choice, right, I mean, so the premise of the decision is to sort of look at these written laws that were passed around the time of the 14th amendments ratification, and to sort of say, look, all of these state laws are criminalizing abortion, and theres some degree of truth to that, that in the late 19th century there were a series of laws that were passed in the states that were picking up on common law and codifying it, and criminalizing abortion and statutes, and a lot of those laws. I mean, I think the motivation behind those laws is also really important to think about, actually.

[0:17:20.6] Michele Goodwin:

Oh, share, Sarah, because we know what those motivations were. Those were laws that came up in the wake of the demise of slavery.

[0:17:28.0] Sarah Dubow:

Yeah, so they came up in the wake of the demise of slavery, the 14th amendment is passed. I mean, I guess, it goes without saying, although Ill say it, you know, its the laws being codified.

[0:17:38.1] Michele Goodwin:

Say it, Sarah. Say it.

[0:17:40.2] Sarah Dubow:

The laws were being codified are, you know, written by White men, theyre being ratified in legislatures where women are not voting, where Black women are not voting, where many Black men, at this point in time, were not voting, and so, you know, to pick that moment

[0:17:54.9] Michele Goodwin:

And just nothing not voting because they cant vote, right, like not voting because, oh, youre just so apathetic, and youre just not exercising your right to vote, right?

[0:18:04.4] Sarah Dubow:

Correct. Correct. I mean, so women cannot vote, and theres a lot of violence and voter suppression following the 15th amendment that makes it extremely dangerous for Black men to vote, and so those laws are passed, and those laws also do retain though some distinctions between stages in pregnancy, and they impose different penalties depending on the stage of pregnancy, and when you look at the actual implementation of those laws, you actually see that theres a big gap between how those laws are written and how those laws are interpreted by juries, for example.

I mean, first of all, very few cases are actually ever prosecuted, at that time, but also, when juries decide, they often dont uphold those laws, and they find that theres not a crime actually being committed that they want to punish, and at the same time, theres also the motive behind the laws, which is drivenI mean, there are a couple of reasons for it, and we can sort of flesh them out, but they were led by a doctor named Horatio Storer, was one of the leading _____ [0:19:10.6].

[0:19:10.5] Michele Goodwin:

Absolutely, Horatio Storer and Joseph DeLee, I mean, you know, they write about how urgent it is that White women use their loins and go east, north, south, and west. It kind of reminds me of the contemporary rhetoric that we hear from the kind of self-described White nationalist and White Christian nationalist, who are concerned about replacement and the whole replacement theory, this idea that as soon as Black people are freed from the chains and boughs of slavery that somehow, theyll just darken the United States and White people will be replaced.

[0:19:47.5] Sarah Dubow:

I mean, thats a huge anxiety for these people, who are passing the laws, and Alito acknowledges it, and he says, but really, like we dont know what they really meant. I mean, they were telling us what they really meant.

[0:19:58.9] Michele Goodwin:

They were writing it. Horatio Storer couldnt have been morethe thing that I find fascinating, Sarah, oh, and Im just loving this conversation, but the thing that I find fascinating is the misreading, rereading of the explicit things that people wrote, right.

[0:20:11.7] Sarah Dubow:

Right.

See the original post here:
63. History Matters: Understanding Abortion Rights in the U.S. and What Comes Next (with Mary Ziegler, Sarah Dubow and Deborah White) - Ms. Magazine

Kamene Goro has embarked on her weight loss journey and we are happy to witness it. This is a great thing for the radio personality and we are happy for her. She is finally taking her health and image seriously.

Perhaps she is being spurred on by the fact she has a new man and she wants to look great for him. Or perhaps she knows her DJ boyfriend gets a lot of female attention and that competition anxiety that has resulted from that knowledge is being harnessed positively.

Kamene Goro with ex-husband

Whatever her reasons, we are just happy to witness the transformation but we do have to call her out for lying to her fans for a number of years, perpetuating the beautiful at all sizes myth. Thats right people, Kamene Goro lied to you.

Her long-held belief that she was being body positive or whatever malarky she has been meditating on is not something she viscerally believes or holds as her own personal truth. And she shouldnt because the truth is, obesity isnt attractive and beauty actually serves a great purpose for not just individuals but the human race.

Kamene Goro won the genetic lottery in as far as body composition goes. She lacks any fat adiposity on her face. Regardless of how big she was when she was at her fattest, the weight never showed itself on her face.

And this is something that made her remain attractive to Kenyan men (who by the way are known for having low beauty standards). But the reason for this as I said earlier is because she was able to cheat the code thanks to her amazing genetics.

Kamene Goro opens up about her body size

Beauty is actually a biological marker for fertility, youth, health and great genes. When men look at women and deem them beautiful it is often with the underlying incentive to mate. So she managed to cheat the system thanks to her genes. She was obese but when you looked at her face alone, you couldnt really tell.

And that person, Kamene Goro who has been given the blessing of such above-par genetics is busy lying to your sister and telling her to stay fat? Yet we both know your sister wears her weight poorly and is puffy-faced?! And as if that werent bad enough, the hypocrisy in it all is the fact that she is now actively working to get her weight under control.

Curvy babe, Kamene Goro

She literally sold a fake bill of goods that she herself doesnt find value in because her actions now show she truly does understand that being body positive means taking care of your body by exercising.

Man, I dont want to be the type of person who takes advice from celebrities like Kamene Goro!

For more thought-provoking opinion pieces, click here. And be sure to like our Instagram page.

Sources:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4892674/

My name isOzymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

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Kamene Goro lied to her fans, she knows being fat is not right - Ghafla!

Thats Farming editor, Catherina Cunnane, in conversation with Katie Corridan of Roundhill Limousins, Fedamore, County Limerick, in this weeks Suckler Focus.

My name is Katie Corridan, and I live on our family farm in Fedamore, Co. Limerick. We have a large pedigree Limousin herd, about 200 cattle, with 100 breeding cows on 205-acres divided across two farms.

Farming is on both sides of my family. My father, Tim, has farmed all his life, originally calf-to-beef in partnership with my uncle, Maurice, next door, who is a dairy farmer.

I have great memories of rearing dairy calves up early before school and rushing out after school to help dad have the buckets ready.

Dad always kept some commercial sucklers, and since he married my mother, Doreen, they started breeding pedigree cattle.

Initially, this was a combination of both Charolais and Limousin, but in recent times, purely Limousin, and slowly, the herd became fully pedigree over time.

My fathers sister, Hanora, also has a stud farm in Limerick and breeds thoroughbred horses, so on that side, it is a full house of farmers interested in breeding.

On my mothers side, my grandfather was a dairy farmer who had pedigree British Friesians and some Simmentals.

His passion for breeding has definitely been passed on as four out of his six children breed pedigree cattle (with the other two aunties being very supportive!).

For dad, calving ease is absolutely paramount; each of our cows must calve unassisted.

My dad farms full-time, with both myself and my mother working outside the farm, taking every opportunity in the evenings and weekends to farm.

We chose to breed Limousin as they combine my fathers penchant for sucklers with milk and great mothering abilities with my mothers love of good quality cattle.

The foundations of our herd have come from importing proven French females, often the dams of bulls who have bred very well.

These include Giroflee (dam of Nenuphar), Disette (mother of Ideal 23) and Melodie (mother of Ramses). I regularly go to Europe with mam on the hunt for new genetics.

Sometimes the most difficult part is how to explain to my commercially-minded dad that a 10-year-old cow was worth the price of 10 suckler weanlings.

Travelling around Europe gave us the confidence to make the switch to breeding polled Limousins in 2014.

Our oldest polled cows are in their sixth lactation and equal their horned counterparts. This spring, we had some repeat customers looking for their next polled bull because they did not want to dust off the de-horner.

True to form, we use predominately AI with some ET work with a stock bull for cleaning up in spring.

JK Miro, our stock bull, to me, is the full package; great quality, easy calving and most importantly, a gentle soul who loves scratches. Culling for docility is very important, but so is breeding for it.

My ideal cow would be the perfect balance of show-quality with functionality milk, fertility and correctness. The goal is to have a 100% polled herd while continuing to breed for these traits and maintaining breed characteristics.

We have a split calving pattern, September to December and mid-January to April. This is mostly due to limited calving facilities but does have the advantage of having strong bulls throughout the year.

We calve all heifers between 24-26 months where possible; it takes a little bit more management, but I think it is worth it in the long run to maximise profits.

We sell bulls for breeding, usually between 14-18 months, mostly in autumn/springtime. Furthermore, we have a sale for our heifers every two years, a mixture of in-calf and maiden females.

Our whole herd is genotyped; we do this at birth as we are a member of the DNA calf registration programme.

As pedigree breeders, this is crucial to verifying ancestry, giving confidence to both ourselves and the buyer. And as we are breeding for polledness, genotyping can give us definitive proof if an animal is polled or horned at a young age.

The rising cost of inputs has definitely been challenging this year. We have used far less fertiliser, aiming to put a greater focus on clover and grassland management which can be more difficult with sucklers.

Luckily, I completed my Green Cert last year, and it gave me a greater appreciation and understanding of grass measuring, fertiliser use and soil sampling.

I am passionate about suckler farming and its place in Irish agriculture. I love seeing the bond between mother and calf develop and watching that calf grow all the way through to a breeding animal.

Nothing will beat that sense of pride. I also think suckler farming gives us a unique opportunity to work with the land in some more difficult environments where other farming practices would not be suitable, and this should be applauded.

Often, the best sucklers are found on harsher land; we have sold bulls to farmers in the Burren and the Beara Peninsula.

Growing up, I always had a calf to exhibit at summer shows, and it was often a hard goodbye to my calves at society sales.

Agriculture shows made a welcome return this summer after three years off; it was wonderful to get back in the thick of it meeting everyone.

A lot of our good family friends are known through showing and our local Limousin club, South West.

I became involved in Limerick Show in 2015, at the start of college and have remained cattle secretary ever since. We are always looking for new members; our show is on next weekend, Sunday, August 28th, 2022.

I think the future of farming is bright, and in particular, it is brilliant to see #WomenInAg becoming more mainstream.

Women have always been integral to Irish farms, yet it was often seen as a very male-dominated industry. My mother, Doreen, and aunt, Rosalish, taught me the foundations of breeding and judging cattle.

As an only daughter, I was very lucky to have excellent female role models in agriculture, more of which are needed. I would sincerely hope that in the future, gender will not be a limiting factor to a successful career in agriculture.

Managing my time is definitely challenging, and I know this is not unique to my own circumstances with so many suckler farmers working outside of the farm.

I do not get the balance right all of the time, but this is one of the benefits of a family farm, with everyone working together.

Farming is most definitely a lifestyle, but it is hard to find anything to compare to the pure happiness and satisfaction it brings.

I have always loved horse-riding, and farming has given me the opportunity to keep my two horses at home, who live alongside the cattle. I love my animals and cannot imagine a life without them.

See more Suckler Focus profiles.

To share your story like Roundhill Limousins, email [emailprotected]

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Roundhill Limousins: 'The goal is to have a 100% polled herd' - Thats Farming

Summer is by far my favorite season of the year. I love the warm temperatures, the longer, sunnier days and the opportunity to spend more time at the lake. But my love for the season quickly expires when I end up covered in red, itchy lumps after spending a few minutes outdoors.

If you're like me, you get frustrated by the number of mosquito bites that litter your body, making you feel like scratching the skin around the bite until you reach bone. While the bites alone can be annoying, it's just downright infuriating when I come inside sporting several new bright-red welts while my friends so kindly report how they don't have a single one.

Why is that? It's not that we're particularly unlucky. There are actually scientific reasons why mosquitoes single out certain people. Here's exactly why mosquitoes bite, and how you can make yourself less of a target this summer. (You can also find out how to easily remove ticks without tweezers.)

Read more:Best Bug Sprays for 2022

Contrary to what you might think, mosquitoes don't bite people for food -- they feed on plant nectar. Only female mosquitoes bite, and they do so to receive proteins from your blood needed to develop their eggs.

There are several factors that impact why some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others:

A common belief is that mosquitoes are attracted to certainblood types, considering mosquitoes bite humans for their blood. Blood type is determined by genetics, and each blood type is created based on the different sets of specific proteins, called antigens, on the surface of red blood cells. There are four main blood types: A, B, AB and O.

While there are no firm conclusions as to which blood type is more attractive to mosquitoes, several studies have suggested people with type O are most appetizing to mosquitoes. A2019 studyobserved mosquito feeding behavior when presented with different blood type samples, and found mosquitoes fed from the type O feeder more than any other. A2004 studyalso found that mosquitoes land on blood group O secretors (83.3%) significantly more than group A secretors (46.5%).

However, these studies are not definitive, and much is still up in the air about mosquito preferences when it comes to blood type.

Mosquitoes are highly visual hunters when it comes to finding a human to bite. This means movement and dark clothing colors like black, navy and red can stand out to a mosquito.Researchhas shown that mosquitoes are more attracted to the color black, but there has been little additional research into why this is the case.

Mosquitoes use sight and smell to find hosts to bite. One of the quickest ways mosquitoes can sniff out a person is through the carbon dioxide emitted when we breathe. According to research published in the journal Chemical Senses, mosquitoes use an organ called a maxillary palp for carbon dioxide detection and can sense it from 164 feet away.

Because carbon dioxide is a huge attractor, people who emit more of it -- larger individuals and people who are breathing heavily when working out -- are more attractive to a mosquito.

Mosquitoes are attracted to more substances and compounds than just carbon dioxide. Mosquitoes can find people to bite by smelling substances present on human skin and in sweat, including lactic acid, uric acid and ammonia.

Researchers are still learning why certain body odors are more attractive to mosquitoes, but they do know that genetics, bacteria on the skin and exercise all play a factor. Genetics impact the amount of uric acid emitted, while exercise increases lactic acid buildup.

In a small study, mosquitoes were observed to land on participants more frequently after they had drank a small amount of beer. But before you swear off beer for good, know that the study only had 14 participants, and it found that mosquitoes may only be marginally more attracted to people who have been drinking beer.

The size and severity of a bite relate to how your immune system responds to the saliva introduced by the mosquito when it bites.

Mosquito bites can range in size from small little spots to large welts. Why is this the case?

Bites affect people differently. The size and severity of a bite relate to how your immune system responds to the saliva introduced by the mosquito when it bites. When mosquitoes bite, they inject some saliva when drawing blood. This saliva contains certain anticoagulant and proteins, triggering the immune system to respond to these foreign substances.

Our body responds by releasing histamine -- a chemical that is released by white blood cells when your immune system is fighting against allergens -- which causes the itchiness and inflammation of the bite.

The best way to handle a mosquito bite is to not get them in the first place -- but often times, that's easier said than done.

Some common ways to prevent mosquito bites include:

Repellants are highly effective in preventing mosquito bites.

Mosquito bites, while annoying, are often not severe and will resolve in a few days. In the meantime, there are several treatments to alleviate the itchiness and inflammation:

Though difficult, try as best you can to not itch the bite too roughly to prevent any sort of skin reaction or infection.

For more, read about thefive smart ways to repel mosquitos this summer, the mosquito forecast tool launched by Google and Off, and how you can make your own DIY traps for mosquitoes, hornets and other flying pests.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

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Why You Might Get a Lot of Mosquito Bites: Blood Type, Clothing Color and More - CNET

A friend of mine who has been having pains in his fingers was recently diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Kindly let me know more about this disease.

Ebika (by SMS)

The exact cause of rheumatoid arthritis is unknown.Researchers think its caused by a combination of genetics, hormones and environmental factors. Normally, your immune system protects your body from disease. With rheumatoid arthritis, something triggers your immune system to attack your joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, which means its caused by the immune system attacking healthy body tissue. However, its not yet known what triggers this. There are several risk factors for developing rheumatoid arthritis.Youre more likely to develop RA if you have a close relative who also has it. Women and people designated female at birth are two to three times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis. Smokingincreases a persons risk of rheumatoid arthritis and makes the disease worse. Your chances of developing RA are higher if you have obesity.

ALSO READ FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

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What is rheumatoid arthritis? - Tribune Online

Forward-Looking Statements

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Forward-looking statements are subject to significant risks and uncertainties,including those discussed in Part I Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of our AnnualReport on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, as supplemented by thesection entitled "Risk Factors" in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, thatcould cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in suchforward-looking statements due to various factors, including our ability tocontinue as a going concern; our ability to comply with Nasdaq's continuedlisting requirements; impacts resulting from or relating to the COVID-19pandemic and actions taken to contain it; anticipated use of capital and itseffects; our ability to increase the volume of our product sales; failures bythird-party payers to reimburse for our products and services or changes toreimbursement rates; our ability to continue developing existing technologiesand to develop, protect and promote our proprietary technologies; plans todevelop and perform LDTs; our ability to comply with Food and DrugAdministration ("FDA") regulations that relate to our products and to obtain anyFDA clearance or approval required to develop and commercialize medical devices;our ability to develop and commercialize additional diagnostic products andachieve market acceptance with respect to these products; our ability to competesuccessfully; our ability to obtain any regulatory approval required for ourfuture diagnostic products; or our suppliers' ability to comply with FDArequirements

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for production, marketing and post-market monitoring of our products; ourability to maintain sufficient or acceptable supplies of immunoassay kits fromour suppliers; in the event that we succeed in commercializing our productsoutside the United States, the political, economic and other conditionsaffecting other countries; changes in healthcare policy; our ability to complywith environmental laws; our ability to comply with the additional laws andregulations that apply to us in connection with the operation of ASPiRA LABS;our ability to use our net operating loss carryforwards; our ability to useintellectual property; our ability to successfully defend our proprietarytechnology against third parties; our ability to obtain licenses in the event athird party successfully asserts proprietary rights; the liquidity and tradingvolume of our common stock; the concentration of ownership of our common stock;our ability to retain key employees; our ability to secure additional capital onacceptable terms to execute our business plan; business interruptions; theeffectiveness and availability of our information systems; our ability tointegrate and achieve anticipated results from any acquisitions or strategicalliances; future litigation against us, including infringement of intellectualproperty and product liability exposure; and additional costs that may berequired to make further improvements to our laboratory operations.Company Overview

?Growth. In 2022, we have continued to grow the top line in terms of bothproduct volume and revenue. Our focus has been on OVA1plus, and, in the secondhalf of 2022, we plan to drive OVA1plus sales volume not only through our owncommercial team but also through our collaboration with BioReference Health,LLC, formerly known as BioReference Laboratories, Inc. ("BRL"). We believeAspira GenetiX and Aspira Synergy should also contribute to increased revenue.In addition, positive trends in the tenure of our sales professionals shouldlead to volume growth. As of June 30, 2022, 67% of our sales professionals hadbeen with us for more than three months and 58% had been with us for more thansix months. We aim not only to increase the number of physicians ordering forthe first time but also to increase repeat orders from existing physiciancustomers.

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In parallel to building our OVA platform offering and our commercial deployment,we have been working on several key publications and product extensions.The OVAWatch manuscript, "Analytical Validation of a Deep Neural NetworkAlgorithm for the Detection of Ovarian Cancer," has been published online in theJournal of Clinical Oncology Clinical Cancer Informatics. The Company hasprepared an application for a Proprietary Laboratory Analyses code with the

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American Medical Association for the OVAWatch test to distinguish it fromOVA1plus with an expectation that Novitas and other payers will apply theOVA1plus Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services fee to OVAWatch, ensuringconsistent coverage and pricing for both OVA products.COVID-19 Pandemic

In December 2019, a novel strain of coronavirus was reported to have surfaced inWuhan, China. The novel coronavirus has since spread to over 100 countries,including every state in the United States. In March 2020, the World HealthOrganization declared COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, apandemic, and the United States declared a national emergency with respect tothe coronavirus outbreak. This outbreak has severely impacted global economicactivity, and many countries and many states in the United States have reactedto the outbreak by instituting quarantines, mandating business and schoolclosures and restricting travel periodically throughout the pandemic. In orderto reduce the impact of limitations on visiting physician offices due toclosures and quarantines, we implemented other mechanisms for reachingphysicians such as virtual sales representative meetings, Key Opinion Leaderpresentations, and increased digital sales and marketing. Patient enrollment forour planned clinical research studies has been slower than originally planneddue to the impact of clinic closures and patients not seeking medical care insome states, which has led to delays in the completion of such studies.Given the potential for future resurgences of COVID-19 cases and the variety offederal and state actions taken to contain them, we are unable to estimate thepotential future impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, results ofoperations or cash flows as of the date of the filing of this Form 10-Q.In addition, as of the date of the filing of this Form 10-Q, we haveapproximately four months of reagents, one of our key testing supplies, instock, depending on volume of tests performed, and we are working with themanufacturer to ensure a consistent supply over the next six months. Aspreviously disclosed, we have put in place staffing and reagent contingencyplans to ensure there is no down time at our lab. We believe the lab couldcontinue to operate in the event any isolated infection were to impact a portionof the workforce. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolveas of the date of the filing of this Form 10-QCritical Accounting Policies and Estimates

Our product revenue is generated by performing diagnostic services using ourOVA1, OVERA, OVA1plus or Aspira GenetiX tests, and the service is completed uponthe delivery of the test result to the prescribing physician. The entiretransaction price is allocated to the single performance obligation contained ina contract with a patient. Under ASC Topic 606, Revenue from Contracts withCustomers, all revenue is recognized upon completion of the OVA1, OVERA,OVA1plus or Aspira GenetiX test and delivery of test results to the physicianbased on estimates of amounts that will ultimately be realized. In determiningthe amount of revenue to be recognized for a delivered test result, we considerfactors such as payment history and amount, payer coverage, whether there is areimbursement contract between the payer and us, and any developments or changesthat could impact reimbursement. These estimates require significant judgment bymanagement. For OVA1, OVERA, OVA1plus and Aspira GenetiX tests, we also reviewour patient account population and determine an appropriate distribution ofpatient accounts by payer (i.e., Medicare, patient pay, other third-party payer,etc.) into portfolios with similar collection experience. When evaluated forcollectability, this results in a materially consistent revenue amount for suchportfolios as if each patient account were evaluated on an individual contractbasis.

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Results of Operations - Three Months Ended June 30, 2022 Compared to ThreeMonths Ended June 30, 2021The selected summary financial and operating data of the Company for the threemonths ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 were as follows:

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Results of Operations - Six Months Ended June 30, 2022 Compared to Six MonthsEnded June 30, 2021The selected summary financial and operating data of the Company for the sixmonths ended June 30, 2022 and 2021 were as follows:

Product Revenue. Product revenue was $3,853,000 for the six months ended June30, 2022, compared to $3,136,000 for the same period in 2021. Revenue for ASPiRALABS is recognized when the OVA1, OVERA, or OVA1plus test is completed based onestimates of what we expect to ultimately realize. The 23% product revenueincrease is primarily due to an increase in OVA1 test volume compared to theprior year, partially offset by a modest decrease in AUP, which decreased from$377 in the first half of 2021 to $376 in the first half of 2022.Medicaid represents approximately 11.8% of volume in the six months ended June30, 2022, at an AUP of $90. This is compared to 11.7% of volume in the firsthalf of 2021, at an AUP of $90. Our OVA1plus AUP without Medicaid was $415 forthe six months ended June 30, 2022, compared to $417 for the same period in2021.The number of Product tests performed increased 23% to 10,257 during the sixmonths ended June 30, 2022, compared to 8,328 Product tests for the same periodin 2021. This increase was due to increased access to provider offices andincreased investment in our current commercial channel.Genetics Revenue. Genetics revenue was $106,000 for the six months ended June30, 2022, compared to $159,000 for the same period in 2021. Revenue for AspiraGenetiX is recognized when the Aspira GenetiX test is completed based onestimates of what we expect to ultimately realize. The 33% genetics revenuedecrease is primarily due to decreased volumes as compared to the same period in2021, in addition to the AUP decreasing to $424 from $483 from the same periodin 2021.

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Liquidity and Capital ResourcesWe plan to continue to expend resources selling and marketing OVA1, OVERA,OVA1plus and Aspira GenetiX and developing additional diagnostic tests andservice capabilities. We plan to launch our next generation ovarian cancer riskassessment test, OVAWatch, in the second half of 2022.We have incurred significant net losses and negative cash flows from operationssince inception, and as a result have an accumulated deficit of approximately$489,239,000 as of June 30, 2022. We also expect to incur a net loss andnegative cash flows from operations for 2022. Working capital levels may not besufficient to fund operations as currently planned through the next twelvemonths, absent a significant increase in revenue over historicrevenue or additional financing. Given the above conditions, there issubstantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.We expect to raise capital through sources that may include public or privateequity offerings, debt financings, collaborations, licensing arrangements,grants and government funding and strategic alliances. However, additionalfunding may not be available when needed or on terms acceptable to us. If we areunable to obtain additional capital, we may not be able to continue sales andmarketing, research and development, or other operations on the scope or scaleof current activity, and that could have a material adverse effect on ourbusiness, results of operations and financial condition.As discussed in Note 2 to the condensed consolidated financial statements, inMarch 2016, we entered into a loan agreement (as amended on March 7, 2018 andApril 3, 2020, the "DECD Loan Agreement") with the State of ConnecticutDepartment of Economic and Community Development (the "DECD"), pursuant to whichwe may borrow up to $4,000,000 from the DECD.

As discussed in Note 3 to the condensed consolidated financial statements, onFebruary 8, 2021, the Company completed a public offering (the "2021 Offering")resulting in net proceeds of approximately $47,720,000, after deductingunderwriting discounts and offering expenses. There was a change in estimate inthe third quarter of 2021 in the amount of $138,000 relating to an expensereversal of offering costs.

In connection with a private placement offering of common stock and warrants wecompleted in May 2013, we entered into a stockholders agreement which, amongother things, gives two of the primary investors in that offering the right toparticipate in any future equity offerings by the Company on the same price andterms as

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Off-Balance Sheet ArrangementsAs of June 30, 2022, we had no off-balance sheet arrangements that arereasonably likely to have a current or future material effect on our condensedconsolidated financial condition, results of operations, liquidity, capitalexpenditures or capital resources.

Edgar Online, source Glimpses

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ASPIRA WOMEN'S HEALTH INC. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS (form 10-Q) - Marketscreener.com

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Genome-wide analyses of 200,453 individuals yield new insights into the causes and consequences of clonal hematopoiesis - Nature.com

Discovering the sex of your baby can be one of the most exciting parts of your pregnancy. But what if someone said you could determine your baby's sex when you're trying to conceive?

Kathryn Taylor, author of The Babydust Method: A Guide to Conceiving a Girl or a Boy, has suggested that the timing and frequency of intercourse in relation to ovulation can be used as a sex selection method.

[There is no blah blah] To find out more, Newsweek has spoken to Taylor, fertility and gynecology experts, and parents who have tried the method.

Taylor told Newsweek that the Babydust method relies on factors that may affect whether an X chromosome or Y chromosome sperm fertilizes an egg. The three key components are timing, frequency and, most importantly, monitoring your luteinizing hormone (LH) levels, she added.

"I was my own first test subject," Taylor said. "I had a son first and a daughter second, just as I had planned. Then I tested it on family and friends and was nearly 100% successful."

Taylor recommends that women monitor their LH levels using basic test strips at least twice a dayideally once in the morning and once in the eveningfor three menstrual cycles before they try to conceive. At major online retailers, a pack of 100 basic LH test strips costs around $35.

She said taking these tests would help determine when your LH levels are surging, which typically occurs approximately 24 hours prior to ovulation. By testing from the fifth day of your cycle until you record a "positive" LH surge for three consecutive months, you will have a better chance of predicting your next ovulation.

The Babydust method, having sexual intercourse once two-to-three days prior to ovulation will likely result in conceiving a baby girl. Alternatively, having sex twice - once on the day of your ovulation and the second time approximately 24 hours after - will likely result in a baby boy.

The difference between frequency is based on studies that Taylor references in the book that revealed that "two acts of intercourse 24 hours apart will alter the uterine environment in favor of Y sperm."

According to Taylor, based on the reported "sways" shared by real couples, "the success rate has been consistently at 87% for both girl and boy sways over the past 5 years."

"Every result that is reported is evaluated to make sure the couple followed the method perfectly," she reassured .

Taylor believes that "some couples have said that this method has actually helped them conceive faster." She explained that by regularly monitoring their LH levels, couples are aware of the woman's most fertile days, which helps them time intercourse accordingly and "focus their efforts on the right days."

With that in mind, Taylor emphasized that "this method is not a guarantee," advising couples "to go into this with a positive attitude." "If they keep in mind that the Babydust method is a way to increase your chances, then it lessens the possible disappointment," she suggested.

Antoine Abu Musa, chief medical officer at online IVF clinic NOW-fertility, shared that although the timing and frequency of intercourse have been widely considered as key factors of sex selection, "there is no scientific objective evidence that it works."

Interestingly, Abu Musa suggested that maternal hormonal levels on the day of fertilization can play a role in determining the sex of the embryo. "More females at birth have been associated with various forms of stressful events and circumstances during or prior to pregnancy," he told Newsweek. "Unfortunately, the research in this field is limited and sometimes contradictory," he added.

Abu Masa also believes that ovulation days differ each month and that monitoring ovulation for three months before applying the Babydust method might not be helpful in predicting your future ovulation. He also shared that even after tracking LH levels for three cycles, timing and limiting the intercourse to a certain day of the cycle "might lead to missing the window of fertilization" altogether.

According to Abu Masa, the only reliable and accurate method of sex selection is the PGT-A, a genetic test performed on embryos fertilized through invitro fertilization (IVF). Dr. Zev Williams of Columbia University Fertility Center suggested that this approach has a 99 percent chance of conceiving a baby of a desired sex. However, it comes with a steep price according to AdvancedFertility, the average cost of one IVF round with a PGT test costs approximately $15,500.

According to U.K. law, however, testing an embryo for the purposes of sex selection was made illegal by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008. As such, the only legal way parents can use a PGT-A test and IVF to select the sex of a baby in the U.K. is by proving that there are significant genetic anomalies associated with the parents having a child of a certain sex.

Dr Evangelia Elenis, chief medical advisor at Tilly and chief physician in obstetrics and gynecology, believes that "the reasoning behind the [Babydust] method makes sense from a theoretical perspective, but not in a practical reality."

"As far as I know, there is no conclusive scientific proof for the Babydust method," she told Newsweek.

Elenis encourages couples to remember that menstrual cycles "are not perfectly regular and calculating averages may not work." Still, she explains that tracking LH levels and predicting ovulation can certainly help in conceiving. However, Elenis warns that so far, "there is no scientific proof that you can control whether a sperm that carries an X or a Y chromosome will fertilize the egg."

Newsweek also spoke to a few members of The Babydust Method Facebook group about their experiences regarding whether or not they were successful and how long and strictly they followed the method.

Earlier this year, Kayla George welcomed a baby boy as a result of a "successful sway" based on the Babydust Method. "We are so thankful for this method," the mother shared.

She described that the "method looked to be the most reliable and cost efficient" compared to other sex selection techniques and methods commonly discussed on the internet. George shared that she and her partner followed the instructions attentively and that it took her two cycles to get a positive test result. As per Taylor's guidance, George tracked her LH levels twice a day for three months prior to trying to conceive.

"We have five wonderful daughters, and we were just hoping to be lucky enough to add a little boy to our family. If we didn't fall pregnant, or if it was another little girl we would have been okay," she shared.

Meanwhile, one woman shared her experience of a "boy sway fail," which happened despite her strictly following all the instructions, tracking her LH levels and even consulting with the author of the book.

Liana Averbeck is currently 18 weeks pregnant with twin girls, after having tried for three months to conceive a baby boy using the Babydust method.

"All details were discussed with the author and she deemed the sway a perfect boy sway," she shared.

According to Averbeck, she even tracked her body basal temperature (BBT) so as to ensure an accurate prediction of her ovulation in addition to charting her LH levels twice a day.

Regardless, although at first she felt "a little bit of a loss and sadness for not getting one boy," the woman has no regrets: "Using this method, I felt I was learning more about my body and was more confident in conceiving," she told Newsweek. Now, Averbeck described that she feels "blessed" to be pregnant with her baby girl twins.

The woman suspected that the genetics on her husband's side might have played a role as she shared that he "mostly has girls on both sides of the family."

Averbeck also said that she discourages the method "if you cannot bear a 'gender sway fail' and would not want another baby of the same gender."

Originally posted here:
How Parents 'Guarantee' Baby's Gender' Using the Babydust Conception Hack - Newsweek

In the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion, a parallel debate has erupted over the use of inclusive pregnancy language. Critics say "omitting the word 'women' to make room for the relatively tiny number of transgender men and people identifying as nonbinary who retain aspects of female biological function and can conceive, give birth, or breastfeed" effectively "erases" women, while supporters of inclusive language call that argument "transphobic" and argue that using such terms "costs us nothing and makes the movement stronger."

Nevertheless, conservatives have weaponized "gotcha"questions like "What is a woman?" or "Can men get pregnant?" Here's everything you need to know:

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week,University of California, Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges went viral after Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked her to clarify if her use of the term "people with the capacity for pregnancy" meant "women." "Many women cis women have the capacity for pregnancy, many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy," Bridges answered. "There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as non-binary people who are capable of pregnancy." She went on claim that Hawley's "line of questioning" was "transphobic" and "opens up trans people to violence."

Hawley's question did not come out of a vacuum, however. Right-wingers like conservative podcast host Matt Walsh and theconservative Christian YouTube channel What Would You Sayhave been using the "gotcha" question "what is a woman?" for a few years now, both to troll liberals but also in higher stakes encounters.Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), for example, asked then-Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson to "provide a definition for the word 'woman'" during her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year (Jackson ultimately responded that she could not because she is "not a biologist").

Questioning gender is as old as civilization itself. Letters from the 18th century B.C. discovered in Mari, Syria, describe a type of prophet known as an assinn or "man-woman." Historian Edward Gibbon wrote that the teenage Roman Emperor Elagabalus "cop[ied] the manners and dress of the female sex." Court documents from the late 1300s record the interrogation of London prostitute Eleanor Rykener, who confessed to having previously lived as a man under the name "John." More recently, gender critics have argued that while we tend to think of our definition of "woman" as beingthe objective definition, it isn't; it's culturally constructed.

But the question of defining "women" has become particularly seized upon by Republicans since the Roe v. Wadedecision. "Turning their ire on inclusive language is a conscious strategy," argues Vox. "It allows Republicans to misrepresent and minimize the effects of laws like abortion bans, by omitting groups that they affect. Engaging in transphobia also plays well withsome members of the Republican base."

The opposite of a "constructionist" definition of gender would be an "essentialist" definition, one rooted in female biology: "Previously a commonly understood term for half the world's population, the word had a specific meaning tied to genetics, biology, history, politics, and culture," wrote New York Times columnist Pamela Paul in a recent op-ed. "No longer. In its place are unwieldy terms like 'pregnant people,' 'menstruators,' and 'bodies with vaginas.'" Or assoon-to-be-former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) put it a "woman" is "XX chromosomes, no tallywhacker."

Before they ever reached into congressional hearings and cable news, the debate between these two definitions of womanhood played out in the left-leaning milieus of academia and feminist activism, with "gender critical" feminists labeled "trans-exclusionary radical feminists" or TERFs by their detractors arguing in favor of essentialism. Now the issue has become front and center, as stoked by the "remarkable bad faith" questioning of conservatives, Philip Bump wrote for The Washington Post.

Others, though, argue the whole debate has become a distraction."The truth is, you can be kind. You can be inclusive. You can also be accurate," writer andphilosopher Kate Manne wrote in a recent Substack post pushing back on the circular debate. "You may just have to make a small but necessary moral effort. And, if you are not prepared to do that, you should be corrected when applicable and subject to due criticism. That is not cancellation, to anticipate. It is basic accountability."

Read more:
The conservative 'What is a woman?' talking point, explained - The Week